LESSONS OF
PROSPERITY
BJ
1571
W 34
89-3
A 815,699
2
HERE
W.L.WATKINSon
IHUZIFUTASH

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WILLS
ARTES
1837
VERITAS
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SECOLULA
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THEBOR
SCIENTIA
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31 QUÆRIS·PENINSULAM-AMⱭNAM
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#
LESSONS OF PROSPERITY
}
Lessons of Prosperity
AND OTHER ADDRESSES
ON PERSONAL CONDUCT
BY THE
GREE
REV. W. L. WATKINSON
00 CO
TR
FER
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>
AUTHOR OF “THE EDUCATION OF THE HEART," "THE BANE and the
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CONTENTS.
I. THE LESSONS OF PROSPERITY
II. THE LESSONS OF ADVERSITY
III. KEEPING UP APPEARANCES
IV. THE SYMPATHY OF GOD
V. PLAYING WITH FIRE
VI. THE IDEA AND DUTY OF HUMAN LIFE
VII. MODEST GOODNESS .
VIII. THE RESISTIBILITY OF EVIL.
IX. THE UNREASONABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS
X. SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY
XI. GRAVES OF DESIRE
XII, THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT
DISREGARDED SIGNALS
J
XIII.
XIV. THE WEAK PLACE
XV. THE PRESENT BLESSING
f
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PAGE
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45
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84
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132
147
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170
I.
THE LESSONS OF PROSPERITY.
'For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy
of Hiram : once in three years came the navy of Tharshish,
bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.'-
1 KINGS X. 22.
THE period of Solomon's reign was the period of
the greatest commercial, political, and intellec-
tual splendour that Israel knew. In that reign the
nation reached its highest point in material wealth
and national influence. My brethren, we too have
navies ever returning, bringing us the treasures of all
lands; in our personal life also we have spaces of
prosperity; and we may find it instructive to consider
our national and personal prosperity in the light of
Israel's history.
I. We will speak of the advantages of a state of pro-
sperity. As Christians we are sometimes disposed to
look with suspicion on wealth and greatness. Lord
Bacon said that prosperity was the blessing of the Old
Testament, and adversity the blessing of the New
Testament. But this aphorism may very easily be
misunderstood. Prosperity is the blessing of the New
II.
1
2
THE LESSONS OF PROSPERITY.
Testament as much as it is of the Old. In its proper
nature, in its legitimate influence, in its Divine design,
prosperity must be regarded as a blessing. One of
Emerson's ancestors was in the habit of praying that
none of his posterity might be rich. It is easy to
imagine a man offering a prayer like that for his pos-
terity, although it would be rather a shabby thing to
do, but you will hardly find a sane man offering such a
prayer for himself. Terrestrial prosperity is still one
of God's benedictions.
Prosperity is a blessing, as it widens the range of our
physical enjoyments. The ancient ships brought silver,
iron, tin, and lead; vesselsof brass; horns of ivory
and ebony; emeralds and purple; fine linen and coral
and agate; honey and oil and balm; wine and wool;
precious clothes; spices, precious stones, and gold;
chests of rich apparel; fruits and meats and corn ; and
far beyond the multitude of riches brought by the
ships of Tyre are the wares and treasures brought by
our white-winged transports from every shore. Does
any one say that all this is of little consequence to
spiritually minded men-that they cannot pretend
specially to rejoice in the increase of material for
physical pleasure? It is of great consequence indeed.
We must never forget that the physical side of the
world is ours; that nature is a vast and delightful
ministry to our senses; that God has given us all
things richly to enjoy. Christianity has a great deal
to say about thrones and crowns and sceptres, but
THE LESSONS OF PROSPERITY.
3
amid all its glorious garniture it duly recognises and
honours the homely basket and store of the present
life. When our ships return laden with good things
let us eat and drink and give God the glory.
"
Prosperity is a blessing, as it gives freer play to
man's intellectual powers, and renders possible a
fuller intellectual life. The period of material pro-
sperity in Israel under Solomon was also a period of
great intellectual activity. So I was great, and
increased more than all that were before me in
Jerusalem also my wisdom remained with me.'
:
It
was a brilliant age of science, philosophy, and poetry.
And so the wealth of our own age tends to make life
less exhausting, to furnish intellectual impulse and
opportunity, and to give the mind of the people at
large a fairer chance of action. Elihu Burritt laments
that the English peasant is a blind painter, creating
on the hill-side glorious pictures in green and gold,
but strangely insensible to the splendour he creates.
Ruskin complains that few people ever look at the
sky. Emerson writes ruefully that whilst he was
strolling on the beach in raptures with the azure and
spiritual sea, the tanned fishermen had nothing to say
to one another except, 'How's fish?' And most of
our intellectual masters lash us for our neglect of the
sights and sounds of a glorious creation. But is this
insensibility on the part of the million a thing greatly
to be wondered at or condemned? These literary
men forget that with the mass of people life is a long
4
THE LESSONS OF PROSPERITY.
struggle to keep body and soul together, and it is no
marvel, therefore, that these burdened ones to a large
extent forget the glory of the world in which they
dwell. An epoch of prosperity gives men leisure and
opportunity to taste mental delights. We see this to-
day. In our public libraries, news-rooms, exhibitions,
galleries of art, concerts, lectures, excursions we see
an era of prosperity freeing men from drudgeries and
slaveries, and opening up to them the pleasures of our
nobler nature. Life with us now has many little
holidays, golden pauses in which the intellectual man
that is in us all, freed from grinding in the mill, steps
out to breathe the ampler air and feel it a pleasant
thing to see the light.
Prosperity is a blessing, as it gives opportunity for
the expression of highest character. Having seen
prosperity so frequently debase character, we are ready
to think it does nothing else. But it need not debase.
character. Prosperity properly used, truly sanctified,
brings character to its very highest and brightest
manifestations. Humility is never more lovely than
when it is clothed in scarlet; moderation is never
more impressive than when it sits at banquets;
simplicity is never more delightful than when it
dwells amid magnificence; purity is never more
divine than when its white robes are seen in palaces;
gentleness and kindness are never more touching than
when displayed by the great and powerful. Some of
the very finest characters I have known have been
THE LESSONS OF PROSPERITY.
5
10
among the rich-patient, sincere, true, pure, disinte-
rested, noble souls they were. It is a mistake to think
that exquisite moral character can spring only out of
want and suffering. When God sanctifies prosperity,
royallest and beautifullest souls come sweeping through
the strait gate of the needle's eye. When men com-
bine gold and goodness, greatness and godliness, genius
and grace, human nature is seen at its best.
Prosperity is a blessing, as it enables us to act out
more fully our noblest aspirations. Solomon enriched
from many quarters was enabled to build the Temple
in utmost perfection and magnificence, and eras of
prosperity afford us opportunity to serve God and
man in the highest things. Such periods give the
individual greater power to serve his generation; they
give a nation greater power to serve less favoured
nations. It is quite true that many who promise
large things when their ship of gold comes in, never-
theless on the arrival of that gallant bark forthwith
put the whole cargo into bonded stores, but noble
souls rejoice exceedingly to find their power increased
to glorify God in the service of humanity. So then
we have much to be thankful for when our ships
return with gold and ivory and spices. It ought
to be a gain to us every way. Our ships ought to
bring, with the treasures of the four winds, pure
pleasure, brightened intellect, nobler character, larger
usefulness.
It is the natural tendency of the Christian faith to
6
THE LESSONS OF PROSPERITY.
issue in a condition of opulence and power. It has
been said, 'The test of a religion is its civilising
power.' A religion must be able to bear several
tests, but this test is certainly one of the greatest
importance. A true religion will prove itself by its
civilising power-by its power to produce general
wealth, knowledge, liberty, enjoyment, abundance,
progress. A religion that does not in all respects
enrich a nation cannot be a true religion. We hear
sometimes of a Church being the Church of the poor;
all that I say is, if its poor remain poor from genera-
tion to generation, such a Church is not the Church
of God. A true faith produces moral superiority, and
material prosperity follows moral superiority like
its very shadow-not always in the individual, but
certainly in the mass-not always immediately, but
certainly in the long run. 'The test of a religion is
its civilising power.' The faith of the Old Testament
bore that criterion. In due season Israel broke into
the splendid flower of intellectual and material glory.
The faith of the New Testament is also approved by
the same criterion. Wherever Christianity goes it
improves the lot of the individual and the race. Its
footsteps are marked by the upspringing flowers of
knowledge, wealth, culture, liberty, power. The other
day at Liverpool a speaker said that 'art would
civilise a people better than religion.' You might
as well say that the rainbow will fill a landscape with
fruits and flowers; the rain does that. Art is the
!
THE LESSONS OF PROSPERITY.
7
rainbow of our civilisation; the civilising, fertilising
power in our midst is the truth of Jesus, the doctrine
of Divine mercy, and righteousness and love and hope,
coming down as rain on the mown grass, as showers
which water the earth. Secularism is strangely at
fault when it reproaches the Christian faith with lack
of utility and practical advantage. The Pilot of the
little boat on the Sea of Galilee has become Lord
High Admiral of the grandest fleet that ever whitened
the seas. 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto you.'
II. We notice the perils of a state of prosperity. It
has its perils to a nation. The text is thought to
hint that national degradation has already set in, but
that may not be the true interpretation of it. The
peacock was a sacred bird, and might have had to
do with the ritualism of the day; the apes might
have been brought over by the scientists of the period.
But still we see that eventually the vastly increased
wealth of Solomon's reign worked disastrously. The
ships of Solomon brought ruin; so did the ships of
Carthage, of Greece, of Rome; so did the rich argosies
of Spain. The other day in Whitby they showed me
the ruins of the grand old Abbey. On the south
aspect the wall is much more dilapidated than on
the north, showing, it would seem, that the light of
the sun had been more destructive than all the wild
storms of the North Sea. So the sun of prosperity has
8
THE LESSONS OF PROSPERITY.
often proved more fatal to empire than the bitterest
tempests of danger and want and conflict. There is
plenty of morbid matter everywhere, and the sun of
prosperity soon develops it disastrously enough.
Prosperity has its perils to the individual. It is
said that birds of paradise are often captured through
their becoming intoxicated with the spice forests on
which they alight, and we have all seen fine men and
women, with the light of heaven in their eye and the
beauty of holiness in their life, fall miserable victims
to prosperity. Some rich men degenerate fearfully,
so do some popular men. To look at the dreadful
havoc that a bit of fortune plays with some men
might well reconcile us to a good deal of misfortune
and obscurity. On the American prairies travellers
are sometimes brought to a standstill through the
wheels of their chariots becoming locked by the
flowers which grow there so profusely; and many a
noble pilgrim to heaven has been hindered, brought
to a fatal halt, by the golden and purple flowers of
fortune which Heaven, in its goodness, had made to
spring in his path. The lower good may destroy the
higher good; as a man becomes richer in gold he may
become poorer in faith, in virtue, in charity, in hope.
Once more, then, we affirm that the faith that creates
our prosperity can sanctify and perpetuate it. We
have seen that the prosperity of Solomon wrought evil
and soon passed away, and as the material glory of
Israel was eclipsed, so has it been with other civilisa-
}
THE LESSONS OF PROSPERITY.
tions. Is this to be the outcome of our prosperity?
It need not be so, for Christianity brings us some new
ideas and ideals, and if we are true to these our faith
shall be on all our glory a defence. Christianity sets
forth a personal moral ideal as the grand object of
life, and so strikes at that sensuality which has proved
one great source of ruin to succeeding civilisations.
In the old world, to a large extent, it was felt that
the sensuous man was the whole man, and in develop-
ing sensuous and sensual pleasure the nation was
sapped and destroyed. Christ has given us a nobler
conception of ourselves and of the end of human life.
He has taught us the pre-eminence of character; He has
profoundly convinced us that in the life of the highest
righteousness shall we find the highest glory and
happiness of being. Brethren, if our prosperity is to
serve us and not to harm us, we must fix our thoughts,
our affections, upon things above. We must maintain
the spirituality of life, seek to be rich toward God,
be strenuous candidates for the crown of righteousness.
He who daily aims to be made perfect in Christ Jesus
in all strength and grace of character is safe against
the corrupting influences of gold, ivory, apes, peacocks,
and whatever else may belong to fat years. Just as
we practically remember that the end of life is not
animal indulgence, but character, so shall our riches
serve without corrupting us.
Christianity also gives us a social ideal of prime
interest and efficacy. The curse of the old civilisations
10
THE LESSONS OF PROSPERITY.
1
•
was selfishness. 'I made me great works; I builded
me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me
gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of
all kind of fruits: I made me pools of water:
I got
me servants and maidens: . . I had great possessions
of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusa-
lem before me: I gathered me also silver and gold: . .
I gat me men singers and women singers.
So I was
great, and increased more than all that were before me
in Jerusalem' (Ecc. ii. 4-9). The I's stand up like a
regiment of Grenadiers. Here was the curse of the
old nations, in the flush of their power and prosperity.
Here is the curse of much of the prosperity of to-day.
Selfishness is the rock on which rich argosies suffer
shipwreck, the rock on which the grandeur of nations
and the happiness of men go to pieces. Christ changes
the I into we, the my into our. He teaches us in His
•
•
large doctrine and grand example to live for others.
The rich must serve the poor, the gifted the illiterate,
the strong the weak, the good the bad-every man
must minister as he has received the gift. This spirit
of unselfishness shall save us personally and nation-
ally. If a man expects his prosperity to be a blessing
to him, let him so use it that it may prove a deeper,
finer, larger service to his neighbour, his countrymen,
his race.
Finally, Christianity brings us the larger measure
of moral power. The riches of the earth are being
poured into our cities, and it needs great moral power
THE LESSONS OF PROSPERITY.
11
to deal successfully with this vast affluence-to resist
all the possibilities of evil it brings with it, to employ
it all to noble ends. We have that power in Christ;
He puts the world under our feet. The prosperity of
fools destroys them, but in the light and strength of
grace we use all things as not abusing them. The
religion of Jesus Christ is not a religion for peasants
only, and rural spots where lilies bloom and birds sing;
it is the religion for crowded cities, for merchants and
multitudes, to restrain their passions, to hallow all
their wealth, and power, and liberty. He who triumphed
over the vision of the kingdoms can make us to share
His triumph. It is a mistake to think that the safety
of people lies in a diminished prosperity; we do not
want fewer ships, but stronger souls-not less pros-
perity, but more spirituality. It is reported that when
Mahomet came to the gates of Damascus, and saw the
unrivalled beauty of the city, he turned away feeling
that he dare not trust himself in such a paradise of
luxury and loveliness; but Paul went in and out of
Damascus uninjured by all its splendours and delights,
for he had seen the light above the brightness of the
sun. So Christ ever saves His people in the power
of a higher life from the perils of this. 'Beloved, I
wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and
be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.'
II.
THE LESSONS OF ADVERSITY.
'Jehoshaphat made ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for
gold but they went not; for the ships were broken at Ezion-
geber.'-1 KINGS xxii. 48.
W
E have read of a ship departing from one of
the New England ports in the early period of
the colony: she never reached her destination; she
was never heard of afterwards. The narrative went
on to say that one pleasant summer afternoon, long
after, the New England people were standing by the
sea when they saw a vessel approach the shore which
they knew by its build and rigging to be the very
missing ship. It drew nearer and nearer until every
line of rigging was visible, and even the faces of those
on board. Then suddenly the vision faded, the sails
dissolved in cloud, the spars were lost in the mist-
lines of the sky, the hull disappeared beneath the
waters, the spectre-bark was no more.
So years ago
we made great ventures, cherished great hopes, but
to-day we know how many of those schemes have
been dashed, and the ships we sent forth with so much
pride and joy are now melting away with nothingness,
THE LESSONS OF ADVERSITY.
13
3
like the apparitional ship of the legend. Our dreams
of prosperity have proved nothing more than dreams;
our fond hopes have been confounded. Let us, then,
this morning take a quiet walk on the shore, and
muse over the skeleton ships and the scattered spars.
The ships of Jehoshaphat were not lost without a
reason, neither are ours, and we ought humbly to
learn the lessons of adversity. If the events of life
had no moral significance, they would simply mean
that a man was just so much richer, or so much
poorer, and there would be an end of the whole matter;
but believing as we do that the events of life are
linked in with the education of the soul, it is our duty
to pause and ponder the great teaching of the disap-
pointments and disasters of life.
I. We view our wrecked hopes in the light of Rebuke.
Our misfortune may be a rebuke for some immoral
principle that has found expression in our life. Jeho-
shaphat had formed an alliance with Ahaziah, an
idolater, and because of this alliance God destroyed
his ships (2 Chron. xx. 37). Just as Jehoshaphat
formed this illegal alliance, so in the pursuit of wealth
and power men are often tempted to make com-
promises and adopt false principles and iniquitous
methods. I believe that there never was a period in
the history of the world when morality was recognised
in trade as fully as it is to-day; but this granted,
there is plenty of immorality existent there still-
much that is dishonest, unfair, selfish. Paul could
14
THE LESSONS OF ADVERSITY.
affirm before Festus, 'This thing was not done in a
corner;' but many things are done in corners now—tin
corners, copper corners, wheat corners, cotton corners.
Does not this overweening covetousness, injustice,
smartness account for many catastrophes in the
business world? Mr. Plimsoll tells us that there are
many' preventable wrecks' on the high seas, and many
a wreck would have been prevented in the commercial
world by a little more moderation, a little more truth-
fulness, a little more justice and charity. The immo-
rality of trade accounts for many a stagnation, many
a crisis, many a Black Friday. Our wrecked ships
ought to call attention to the principles on which
we have sailed them, and if we find that we have
entered into immoral partnerships, brought into our
business equivocal principles, made guilty concessions
for the sake of realising some coveted gain or pleasure,
we need not wonder that our ships have been broken,
and we must be careful that the bitterest tears we
shed over them are tears of penitence.
Our misfortune may be a rebuke to the godless
temper in which we have conducted our business.
God stands at the back of the natural world and
the commercial world, acting with infinite freedom
throughout. Saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens,
and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall
hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they
shall hear Jezreel' (Hos. ii. 21). There is a long
chain of things, causes, forces, but the last link of the
(
THE LESSONS OF ADVERSITY.
15
6
chain is in the hand of God. Without His bidding
not a drop of rain falls from heaven, no corn springs
out of the earth, no cluster ripens in the sun-the
blessing of God alone gives fertility. But we are apt
to forget this. There may be much practical atheism
where there is little or no theoretical atheism, and
there is much practical atheism in trade. Go to
now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go
into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy
and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what
shall be on the morrow' (James iv. 13). No recog-
nition of God-of His will, of His government, of His
glory. It was forgotten that He has the silver and
the gold, that He is the Lord of the harvest, that He
holds the winds in His fists, the waters in the hollow
of His hand. May not our misfortunes sometimes be
a direct rebuke to our unbelief, our presumption, our
ungodliness? We sent forth a gallant barque, with
a picked crew, a master pilot, a fair wind, a rising
market, and the proud craft is a derelict, driven on
the rocks, scattered on the beach, swallowed in the
depths.
S
Brethren, let us accept these catastrophes as rebukes
for our lack of religious thought and feeling in prac-
tical life. Our misfortunes are blessed if they show
us our errors and sins, and lead us into truer path-
ways. There is no more awful thing in life than
for a man to succeed in immoral and godless ways;
any blasting wind is good that saves us from that.
缝
​16
THE LESSONS OF ADVERSITY.
Thank God for disaster if it only opens our eyes and
saves our soul. 'I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments
are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted
me.' And let us learn better for the future. Then
said Ahaziah the son of Ahab unto Jehosaphat, Let
my servants go with thy servants in the ships. But
Jehoshaphat would not' (1 Kings xxii. 49). The
King of Judah had had enough of that. So let it be
with us.
Let us take counsel of God; let us be loyal
to truth and righteousness; let us remember that light
has no fellowship with darkness, neither he that
believeth with an infidel; let us sail our gold ships
on higher principles altogether, and in days to come
they may bring us greater treasure, and if they do not
bring us greater treasure we shall get a great deal
more joy out of the little that they do bring.
II. We may view our wrecked ships in the light of
Mercy. We often see men tried by success, and they
fail under the trial ignominiously. The Fathers
used to speak of Christ's threefold cross-the cross of
suffering, of temptation, of honour; the last they
averred being the hardest to bear. The cross of
honour! It is difficult to think of honour as being a
cross at all. At least we are all candidates for that
crucifixion. The tree of polished cedar; the crown of
blossom; the nails of gold; Calvary, the steep of
Fame; Golgotha, full of flowers and fountains and
music-we are all ready to be lifted up after that
fashion. Yet the Fathers were right; prosperity is a
6
THE LESSONS OF ADVERSITY.
17
·
form of trial some natures may not bear. Men some-
times break down intellectually through great and
unexpected prosperity; it involves a shock and strain
to which their brain is not equal; and morally it is
to some fraught with still sterner peril. Heaven, in
its pure mercy, denies us positions and ordeals for
which we are not fitted.
Perhaps we were in danger from vanity. If we
had attained the promotion, the wealth, the ease, we
sought for, it might have turned our head. Physicians
tell us that there is almost no sin which yields more
inmates to the madhouse than vanity does; and then
we must think of the far greater multitude still at
large. We all know wealthy men who are full of foolish
pride, popular men full of an abominable egotism.
Our wrecked hopes keep us humble. Or, perhaps,
we were in danger of covetousness. The narrowing
lust of gold is the special peril of some. A Danish
painter in representing the Last Supper resolved to
paint each disciple from a living model; he suc-
ceeded very easily until he came to Judas, then every-
body declined to sit; no one would lend his shadow for
the sordid traitor. But in actual life men readily take
the place of Judas; they are ready to sell themselves
and everything that is sacred for a few pieces of silver.
Avarice is a subtle and an awful passion, that grows
by what it feeds upon, and God, in His grace, starves
the passion that would devour us. Or, it may be, our
danger lay in the direction of indulgence. Solomon's
II.
2
18
THE LESSONS OF ADVERSITY.
ships brought the gold and spices, and the multiplied
riches and luxuries of the age of prosperity proved
fatal to Israel; and it is the merest commonplace to
say that in all ages increased riches have betrayed
men into pampering their lower nature at the expense
of their higher.
God knows what each of His children can and
ought to bear, and He will not subject us to any
unfitting or excessive ordeal. If your ships had
brought the treasure you hoped for, you would have
lived in a larger house, you would have ridden instead,
of walking as you do now, a great many more people
would have known you than know you now, you would
have sat with Dives instead of being the near neigh-
bour of Lazarus. Ah! sat with Dives. Say no more.
Thank God for the calamities that save from pride
and greed and surfeit. For what is a man profited, if
he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
(Matt. xvi. 26). Do you say, 'Ah! but this life of
endless battle with poverty and difficulty is terrible,
up-hill work'? Up-hill' work, dear brethren—why,
this is precisely the way we want to go! Thank
God for the deprivations that drive us to higher
levels, for the sorrows which compel us into nobler
selves.
(
6
>
III. We may view our wrecked ships in the light
of Discipline. If we do not regard the frustration of
our hopes as aiming immediately at the salvation of
t
THE LESSONS OF ADVERSITY.
19
our soul, we may certainly regard such disasters as
designed to effect the development and enrichment of
our soul. And is not this development and enrich-
ment of the soul the grand end of life? Is not the
top prize of existence the crown of personal and
immortal righteousness?
God perfects His people in very different ways ;
some through wealth, some through want, making
both in the end equally complete. The mountains of
the earth are all glorious, but, like the stars of the
sky, they differ in glory. One mountain shakes like
goodly Lebanon-it is adorned with grass, painted
with flowers, crowned with cedars; whilst another
mountain has not a blade of grass, or a wild flower,
or a tree upon it. Has the bare hill, therefore, no
glory? Surely it has. It seems as if God had left
these very hills bare of all earthly beauty, that He
might the better display there the mysteries of celes-
tial beauty. There is no emerald grass, or golden
gorse, or crimson heather, or leafy plume of pine or
palm; but on those very slopes and crests, so naked and
desolate, are poured out strange splendours of light
and atmosphere and vapour-all those glories of shade
and colour which make the painter drop his pencil in
despair. So, my brethren, is it with character. Last
week I spoke of the rare advantages of consecrated
wealth and popularity; yes, through worldly power
and affluence and pleasure God clothes some of His
people with the glory of Lebanon. I say now He
Sp
20
THE LESSONS OF ADVERSITY.
4
makes others of His people grand through depriving
them of earthly wealth and hope; they stand forth in
society with the bareness, and yet with the solemn
greatness and magnificence, of Mont Blanc. Brethren,
has your temporal loss been your spiritual gain? Has
adversity made you serious, patient, devout; strong
in thought, rich in feeling, pure in aim? Has it
caused you to depend upon God more, to seek His
face more, to cherish His love more? Then your
wrecked ships have realised for you more than your
brightest hopes. Do not be restive under adversity.
God feeds us with fasts, comforts us with tragedies,
leads us to victory through lost battles, and sends our
gold ships down that He may send us up.
Not only, however, is it true that some of God's
children are perfected through want, and some through
wealth, but others are perfected through strange expe-
riences of both. Up to a certain point life is a course
of victory and ever-increasing volume of power and
success; then, again, it is a story of frustration and
failure; one voyage the ships bring the gold, the next
they are broken. But let us be sure that in this way
God designs to give us the fulness of perfection. The
scientists tell us that during the great Southern Glacial
Period many southern plants were driven to northerly
climates, and then again the glaciation of the northern
hemisphere drove northern plants to southerly climates;
and so on the Organ Mountains of Brazil both Arctic
and Antarctic plants are found commingled in strange
THE LESSONS OF ADVERSITY.
21
brotherhood, testifying to the alternate glaciation of
the two hemispheres. Brethren, as by the world's
changing climate the flowers of the two hemispheres
have been assembled on these Brazilian mountains,
mingling their divergent beauty and sweetness, so
God, by alternations of health and sickness, success
and failure, joy and sorrow, brings together in the
character of His children all the bright graces of the
moral universe.
Whatever is, to us, is best. Whatever earthly
glory perishes, moral glory is still the prize; and if
through the vicissitudes of life we are made fit to see
God's face, blessed is He when He gives, blessed is
He when He takes away.
IV. We may view our wrecked ships in the light
of Prophecy. They may remind us of the coming day
when all our gold ships will go down in Jordan's tide,
leaving not a floating spar for us to gather. All our
human hopes will melt away like that spectral ship
of which I spoke just now. Keep that before you.
Some colonial writer objecting to Chinese immigra-
tion, says, 'The Chinaman thinks more of a splendid
coffin than he does of an upright life.' What a
strange charge to bring against a Chinaman! Do
not many Englishmen think more of a purple coffin
than they do of a noble life? Let us not live for a
splendid coffin, but for a splendid character. Let us
live that we may be true and pure. Whatever this
world has given us it will soon demand from us, just
22
THE LESSONS OF ADVERSITY.
as the waves of the sea suck back the glittering shells
with which they first strewed the shore. Do not sail
your soul in your ships. Lay up treasure where
moth and rust do not corrupt. As the world disap-
points us let us get nearer to God, and when these
storms are over it shall be said of us upon a happier
shore what was said of the shipwrecked men of old:
(
The rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces
of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped
all safe to land.'
4
↓
f
III.
I. WB
I
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES.
And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me
out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity
in me that were sin.'-HOSEA xii. 8.
E will consider the hiding of sin.
Ephraim is in truth most unrighteous, but he
contrives to sin in such a way that he appears innocent
'In all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me
that were sin.' 'It shall never come to that; I will not
lay myself open to rebuke; my action shall never
bring me within the meshes of the law; whatever I
may do for gain, or indulgence, or power shall wear
the colour of right and justice.' Brethren, is there
not much of this kind of reasoning in many of us in
these days? Or if it be not exactly reasoning, does
not an unconscious cerebration go on that comes to
the conclusion of Ephraim? Do we not attempt by
many subtilties to hide the real qualities of our actions,
to shelter ourselves from their just penalties ?
Men sin deeply, and yet keep within the civil law.
Ephraim meant to say that whatever his conduct
24
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES.
1
،
may have been, it had never brought him before the
magistrate, and he was purposed that it never should
-national and international law were scrupulously
observed by Ephraim. So men still flatter them-
selves on this ground-they keep the law of the
land. And yet, brethren, a man may carefully keep
the law of the land whilst he is an infinite scoundrel.
He may keep the civil law and be guilty of gross dis-
honesty. Balances are in his hand,' the appearance
of rectitude is impressive, and yet the balances are
'balances of deceit '-he cheats all the time. So in
business to-day men may keep up most plausibly the
appearance of rectitude whilst they rpetr ate a thou-
sand dishonesties which the law of the land cannot
detect or punish. A poor simple blunderer is before
the court directly; but masters of technicalities,
professors in the arts of embezzling, adulterating,
puffing, scamping, become rich and famous, never once
rendering themselves actionable. Plenty of iniquity,
but none iniquity that were sin. We may also keep
the civil law with very little sense of generosity.
'He loveth oppression.' The cardinal law of God
that we should 'love mercy' finds very little recog-
nition in human statutes. We may be guilty of deep
cruelty to our fellows, and the law of the magistrate
takes no cognisance of our conduct whatever. I remem-
ber a case where a gentleman felt aggrieved because a
neighbour put in a window that overlooked his property,
and so, in retaliation for the wrong or the supposed
-
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES.
25
་
wrong, the gentleman built a conservatory the chimney
of which poured its smoke right into the window of
the offending neighbour. He was within his right;
he could not be indicted for the nuisance; but how
truly vindictive and immoral the act! God will make
him smoke some day if he does not repent, but the
magistrate cannot touch him now. All the days of
your life you may be ungenerous and merciless, and
yet not once overstep the lines of legal duty.
And often the very worst escape, whilst those far
less guilty are denounced and punished. The problem
with many travellers in crossing the Channel is, how
much they can smuggle without smuggling-without
being detected, without being punished. It is mar-
vellous what the old hand can do, but if a nearly
blameless novice should be tempted once in life to
do a very clever thing in this way most probably
he comes to grief. One with impunity gets a bale
through, the other is convicted for a contraband snuff-
box; one brings through triumphantly a carboy, and
the other is heavily mulcted for secreting a smelling-
bottle. It is the dexterity of the old hand that does
it. So it is with this social and business life through-
out. One transgressor with craft and audacity drives
a coach and six through the law of the land without
grazing the gate-posts, whilst a poor petty blunderer
forthwith gets six months on the treadmill for attempt-
ing to wheel a perambulator through.
Men sin deeply, and yet keep within public opinion.
26
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES.
6
A public opinion exists which is more strict and per-
vasive than the civil law; this public opinion we are
bound to respect, we do respect it, and some of us are
abundantly satisfied if we succeed in meeting its exac-
tions. They shall find none iniquity in me that were
sin."
The social critics shall find no just grounds
against me: I will not be guilty of bad taste; I will do
nothing to compromise my standing; I will be known
as a gentleman.' But, brethren, how much personal,
commercial, political immorality is yet untouched by
public opinion! A man may be a tremendous rascal,
and yet be a gentleman. They know how to sail close
to the wind; they never commit themselves. They
would scorn to be found drunk-such a thing is alto-
gether vulgar and horrible-but they live in intem-
perance from year to year. They live lives of lascivious-
ness, but they are far too discreet and delicate to raise a
scandal. They are never impeached for wife-beating-
the very thought of it is revolting; it is sadly vulgar
to be brought before the magistrate for breaking a
woman's head-but by subtle cruelty they break a
woman's heart, remaining perfect gentlemen to the
last. Oh, with a plausible tongue, a polished style,
with fine phrases and fine manners, a man may be
guilty of fraud, cruelty, uncleanness, and yet remain
throughout popular in society! Rotten at the core, he
is painted on the rind, and the world sees the skin
and not the soul. Some of the handsomest butterflies
have the strangest tastes-they turn aside from the
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES.
27
most glorious flowers to sip filthiest messes, but who
thinks about that when they go swimming past in
the noontide splendour? So in society are men of
spotted soul, of most iniquitous life, and yet, externally
painted, powdered, polished, they are counted quite
charming, and are received everywhere with delight.
We sin deeply, and yet maintain the sense of personal
dignity. Ephraim felt himself to be no sinner; he
was quite touched that such a thing should be sug-
gested; sinner that he was, he was not a conscious
sinner. And how did Ephraim hide from himself the
fact of his guiltiness? He looked at his successful-
ness. 'I am become rich, I have found me out
substance.' This is, my brethren, a common damning
error still; men forget their sinfulness in their pros-
perity. If the soldier wins the battle he concludes
that his cause was right; if the politician wins his
election he concludes that his policy is right; if the
merchant accumulates a fortune he considers that
Heaven has endorsed his principles, whatever they
may be. And yet this line of argument may be, and
often is, utterly false. A man may be a conqueror,
and yet his glory be his shame; he may attain honour,
and his scarlet robe be the fitting sign of his scarlet
sins; he may grow rich, and every coin in his coffers
witness against him; he may possess every means of
happiness, and yet have forfeited all right to happi-
ness itself. His honour rooted in dishonour stood.'
Many a man has a certain sense of self-respect who
28
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES.
ought to have none, for his self-respect is based on
his wealth and position, not on his personal merit; on
his clothes, not on his character. Say such to them-
selves, 'I have not looked upon life in any Puritani-
cal light certainly; I have not been too scrupulous in
my business; in my social and political career I have
confessedly not been a saint; but I have got on, I am
independent, I am influential, I am popular, I am a
member of the School Board, have a seat on the
Board of Guardians, am an Alderman, just got upon
the County Council-head of the poll; they have
found none iniquity in me that were sin.' So proud,
selfish, dishonest, sensual men flatter themselves in
their own eyes until their iniquity is found to be
hateful.
Men sin deeply, and yet keep within ecclesiastical
discipline. Ephraim was in the Church, Ephraim
was the Church, and he stood on his dignity. He
would do no iniquity that were sin from an ecclesias-
tical point of view. He was a good Churchman, and
on that fact he rested complacently and confidently.
And yet all the while he was guilty of falsehood,
robbery, injustice, uncleanness; he called himself
Israel, but God called him a Canaanite. How easily
may it be thus now! The professor of religion says to
himself, 'I keep the Lord's Day, I have a pew in the
sanctuary, I communicate at the Lord's Table; I have
nothing to do with heretics and heresies, with Sabbath-
breakers and profane persons; and yet God knows
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES.
29
،
that in his hands are false balances, in his chest dirty
money, in his heart the spirit of worldliness, the
lusts which defile and destroy. It is to these God.
addresses Himself in deepest anger: Your new
moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth :
they are a trouble unto Me; I am weary to bear them.
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide
Mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many
prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood'
(Isa. i. 14, 15). And Christ shows us in the Pharisees.
that men may be absolutely blameless touching eccle-
siastical law, and yet concerning the moral law may
be worse than publicans and harlots. A man may be
a terrible sinner, and yet observe all the ceremonial
law; a leper before God, but so muffled and veiled
with denominational livery that he easily passes
muster here as a saint.
So by various methods men disguise their sins from
themselves and from others. With nimble imagina-
tion, clever tongue, discreet method, they wrap up the
deepest and bitterest sins, and whilst villains before
Heaven, they are gentlemen, moralists, saints before.
their fellows. In Venice, Quinet was shown a helmet
of studied beauty, constructed to crush the heads of
the accused. Thus,' the philosopher remarks, ' Venice
was artistic even in her tortures.' How many men are
artistic in their sins!
6
II. Mark finally the inevitable exposure and punish-
ment of sin.
30
?
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES.
Cleverly disguised as sin may be, it will inevitably
suffer detection. They shall find none iniquity in me
that were sin.' No, but He, the great Heart-Searcher,
shall. The magistrate shall not find it, the social critic
may not, the ecclesiastical censor may not, the sinner
himself may not, but it stands revealed before God.
The man of science has electrometers, spectroscopes,
gossamer gauges, fairy balances, magic tests; he can do
the most wonderful things in the way of analysing
physical bodies, in measuring subtle natural forces.
But all this delicacy of criticism is mere barbarism
compared with the criticism of God. 'The Lord
weigheth the spirits.' He puts thoughts, tastes,
emotions into the scale; with severer tests than we
dream, the hidden qualities and principles of every
heart are made manifest in His sight. God knows
nothing about appearances; He knows us as we are,
as we think in our heart. It is reported that an
American physician, Dr. Upham, of Salem, Massa-
chusetts, recently demonstrated to an audience to
whom he was lecturing the variations of the pulse in
certain diseases by causing the lecture-room to be
placed in telegraphic communication with the City
Hospital at Boston, fifteen miles distant; and then,
by means of a special apparatus and a vibrating ray
of magnesian light, the pulse beats were exhibited
upon the wall. Brethren, there is not a throb of our
heart but it makes its sign on the great white throne :
'He knoweth our thoughts afar off.' 'Thou hast set
6
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES.
31
I am
our sins before Thee, our secret sins in the light of
Thy countenance.'
And what stands thus revealed is bound to meet
with just retribution. All unrighteousness of men
will be punished, but God is under peculiar obligations
to discover the sin that has attempted to hide itself,
the sin that has dared to parade itself as virtue. This
is the meaning of the strong language that is used
everywhere in the Scripture as against hypocrites.
'For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he
hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? Will
God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?'
(Job xxvii. 8, 9). Therefore the Lord shall have no
joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy
on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an
hypocrite and an evildoer' (Isa. ix. 17). And our
Lord was supremely severe on the Pharisee because
his sin partook of this odious character. As hypocrites
they sound the trumpet; as hypocrites they pray; as
hypocrites they fast. And with altogether unwonted
wrath our Lord denounces this class of sinners: Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
are as graves which appear not, and the men that
walk over them are not aware of them' (Luke xi. 44).
It is the hypocrite whom God shall 'cut asunder,' and
thrust down into the lowest hell
1
6
ideal of Ephraim:
me that were sin.'
In all life let us aim at the highest. Mark the
They shall find none iniquity in
This is a low, bad ideal. It is
32
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES.
:
to make the standard of life as low as possible. The
design was not to reach a great perfection, but to do
equivocal and detestable things without being detected
and punished. Listen, on the other hand, to the
Psalmist I will behave myself wisely in a perfect
way. O when wilt Thou come unto me? I will walk
within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no
wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of
them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.'
Here is another and the true ideal to aim at the
highest, to aspire to a spirit and life in which there
is no iniquity at all. The Psalmist's purpose was a
whole eternity beyond Ephraim's. Let the pure, lofty,
uncompromising ideal be ours.
(
In all life let us test ourselves by the highest. It is
not for us to consider, Will this do for the civil law?
will this be accepted by public opinion? will this be
admitted by ecclesiastical rubrics ? Let us constantly
judge ourselves in the sight of God. We hear of civil
cases being taken to a higher court.' Brethren, ap-
peal constantly to the highest court of all. Measure
yourselves by the absolute standard; remember day
by day what God exacts from you, what He knows
about you. Judging ourselves now in the sight of
God, we shall have less reason to fear that great day
when the hidden things of darkness shall be brought
to light. 'Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked în
mine integrity: I have trusted also in the Lord;
therefore I shall not slide. Examine me, O Lord,
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES.
33
and prove me; try my reins and my heart. For thy
lovingkindness is before mine eyes and I have walked
in thy truth.' 'Search me, O God, and know my
heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if
there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting.'
II.
8
IV.
THE SYMPATHY OF GOD.
'And they put a reed in His right hand.'—Matt. xxvii. 29.
THUS
HUS the soldiers in mockery, and no doubt they
thought it fine ridicule. The kings of the earth
wielded jewelled sceptres, two-edged swords, crushing
maces, rods of iron, and it was satire indeed to put
into the hand of the Nazarene a mere reed. But
those soldiers did more than they knew. They put
a sceptre into His hand; they did wisely, for He was
a veritable King—all rule and all authority and power
belonged to Him. They put a sceptre of reed into
His hand; they stumbled into truth again, for the
spirit of His reign was gentleness, the end o His
government was to raise up all those who were bowed
down. Let us this morning speak of some of the
great truths suggested by this singular sceptre; let us
speak of the relation of Christianity to the pathos of
human life.
I. The text reminds us of the spirit which God
cherishes to our race at large. Man is the reed of the
sentient universe. He is frail as the reed, sensitive as
THE SYMPATHY OF GOD.
35
I
the reed, fugitive as the reed. He stands in the midst.
of the awful forces of nature, trembling as the reed
shaken with the wind. Nay, he is a bruised reed.
He has been smitten by a mighty misfortune, and
stands bowed and bleeding. But it is to this very
race that God has made Himself known in Jesus
Christ. In the vast universe of God are imperial
intelligences-archangel, seraph, cherub, principality,
power; not, however, to these mighty oaks, these lordly
cedars, these gorgeous trees of Paradise, but to the
bruised reeds of the rational universe has God made
known His sovereign redeeming love. He took not
upon Him the nature of angels, but He took hold of
the seed of Abraham.' 'He came to seek and to save
that which was lost.'
<
Here, my brethren, is the hope of the race. What
would become of the world to-day if the pitiful, loving,
hopeful Gospel were taken out of it? If you could
blot Passion Week from the calendar what a world of
pity and consolation would vanish with the figure of
the Nazarene! Our hope is in Him. He stands
before us as the demonstration of God's everlasting
love to our race, of God's great purpose concerning our
race. Says scepticism, Man is a reed, a reed that
after bleeding awhile shall rot in the mud. But what
says Christianity? Man is a reed, a bruised reed, but
he is still a thinking reed, a redeemed reed; Eternal
Love broods over him, and far from rotting in the mud,
his divine powers are destined to unfold themselves,
}
36
THE SYMPATHY OF GOD.
in brilliant and unwithering blossoms, by that crystal
river which flows from the throne of God and the
Lamb. The Man with the reed. is the true and faithful
witness that notwithstanding all our weakness, and
sin, and misery, God has not forsaken us. The Bible
takes its name from a reed, and the Gospel of the glory
of the blessed God is a Gospel of sympathy and hope.
for a smitten, sorrowful race, bowed to the dust,
trampled in the mire.
II. We are reminded by our text of the spirit in
which God deals with the more forlorn members of our
race. Some amongst us are singularly afflicted,
desolate, hopeless, and our religion is specially inte-
rested in such. Here in the text Christ was numbered
with the outcasts; He became identified with the de-
spised and rejected; He stood revealed as their special
Friend and Helper. He sympathises with us all,
bending with rarest grace of all to such as are most
forlorn. The great men of the world are the forest
kings of the social landscape; the rich are its olives ;
the clever are its orchids; the fashionable are its
climbing roses; the merry are its purple vines; but
there at the bottom, in the dirt, are the bruised reeds
of humanity, the outcast, the forsaken, the ill-starred,
the poverty-stricken, the weak, the wronged, the fallen.
For such Christ, Who Himself was despised and
rejected of men, cherishes a mysterious and inextin-
guishable pity. The poor have the Gospel preached
to them.' That was the crowning evidence that the
THE SYMPATHY OF GOD.
37
}
Messiah had come-it was the final miracle, leaving
no room for doubt. Christ discovered the pariah.
and in discovering the pariah He discovered Himself.
The same spirit of condescending sympathy breathes
in the Epistles--everywhere you find yourself among
slaves and exiles. And it is thus in our day-Chris-
tianity, at home and abroad, is restlessly seeking that it
may save the weak, the wicked, the worthless. In
our generation there is everywhere the glorification
of power. Our science magnifies physical power; it
is never weary of showing how throughout nature
strength crushes weakness: our literature glorifies
intellectual power; it has little respect for weakness of
any sort. In a day, therefore, when our science strives
to turn blood and iron into a philosophy, when our
literature seeks to turn blood and iron into a religion,
it is a precious thing that One moves amongst us
Who does not scorn the meanest name, Who, bending
to the weakest and lowliest, whispers saving words of
hope, and peace, and immortality.
One of our writers says, 'How surprising it seems
that we find in Jesus no feeling of scorn for man!'
Yes, so much about us is worthless and wretched that
we might be sure we should provoke His scorn; but
we forget that Messiah shall not break the bruised
reed, nor quench the smoking flax, and so through
infinite gentleness bring forth truth unto victory.
In foreign lands Christ's words at this very moment
are inspiring the offscouring of the race with hope,
38
THE SYMPATHY OF GOD.
and lifting them up into a strange sense of dignity
and joy. And here at home it is the same. Christ
is drawing near now, as He did in the days of His
flesh, to the forlornest men and women and children,
filling them with a strange sense of shame, kindling
in them high desires, comforting them with words
tender and strong, raising them into a new life of
purity and gladness. Mr. Morison, a little while ago,
in a famous book, told how a vast mass of people must
be left in their sin and shame; there is nothing for
them but annihilation; but we know better. Christ
loves to get at the 'residuum ;' it is there that the
reeds grow, and ten thousand times over has the
Redeemer's soft strong hand restored the bleeding,
slime-bespattered reeds, and changed them into eucha-
ristic lilies fit for the bosom of God.
III. We are reminded by our text of the spirit in
which God deals with the soul bruised by the sense of
sin. How tender is the Lord Jesus in dealing with
all who come to Him with a broken spirit and a
contrite heart! how gracious He is to penitent souls
bowed down like a bulrush! how delicately and skil-
fully He lifts them out of darkness into the upper
sunshine! There is nothing in all the world like
the tenderness of Christ to penitent souls. When
Zedekiah ordered Jeremiah to be taken up out of
the dungeon, 'Ebed-melech took the men with him,
and went into the house of the king under the trea-
sury, and took thence old cast clouts and old rotten
-
THE SYMPATHY OF GOD.
39
1
1
rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon
to Jeremiah. And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said
unto Jeremiah, Put now these old cast clouts and
rotten rags under thine armholes under the cords.
And Jeremiah did so. So they drew up Jeremiah
with cords, and took him out of the dungeon' (Jer.
xxxviii. 11-13). No doubt Jeremiah was a man of
very sensitive constitution, and just then, emaciated
as he was by his confinement, those clouts taken from
under the treasury were as precious as anything in
the treasury. How full of thoughtful kindness it was
on the part of Ebed-melech ! Why, the mass of men
would never have thought of such a thing--they would
have lifted the prisoner sharply and rudely, the cords
cutting to the bone, and very likely have dropped him
back into the dark! Clear evidence that the swarthy
Ethiop had a tender, generous heart. And how thank-
ful was the prophet for those rags under his armholes!
Ah! to the quivering, sensitive Jeremiah the rotten
rags were softer than satin, more precious than purple,
more delightful than lace or ribbon that kisses in
daintiest dalliance the cheek of beauty.
Is it not thus, my dear brethren, when Christ comes,
in the power of His great love, to lift us out of the
lower into a new and nobler life? Oh, how the
cords might cut into our spirit-the sense of the law's
majesty, the knowledge of God's righteousness, the
consciousness of sin, the dread of retribution! But
with many concessions, solacements, and encourage-
40
THE SYMPATHY OF GOD.
(
ments does Christ lift us out of the horrible pit and
the miry clay. We are often strangely thoughtless
and unfeeling in the attempt to lift penitents into
a higher life; through our mercilessness and mal-
adroitness many who are being raised fall back again ;
but God does not forget our weakness, and however
cold philosophers may despise the tender and senti-
mental aspects of the Christian faith, it is through
this gentleness that we live. Every saved soul here
to-day will gratefully sing with the prophet, I called
upon Thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.
Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon
Thee: Thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, Thou hast
pleaded the causes of my soul; Thou hast redeemed
my life' (Lam. iii. 55, 57, 58). Am I speaking
to one this morning filled with shame and sorrow,
trembling as the reed? Remember, my brother, what
one of the old preachers says: Christ never breaks
anything that bends.' Trust in Him, and His gentle-
ness shall make you great.
IV. We are reminded by the text of the spirit in
which God deals with His people in all the days of their
weakness and sorrow. All God's people, it may safely
be affirmed, have seasons of deep inward discourage-
ment; times in which they are very conscious of the
weakness of nature, when they seem to have the least
root in the truth, when only a mere fibre seems left to
unite them with goodness; times of great indecision
and inefficacy, of dulness and deadness, of least com-
I
1
[
THE SYMPATHY OF GOD.
41
fort and trembling hope. Some, like Cowper, are of
a delicate, shrinking, morbid constitution; they are
easily cast down, and quiver as a reed does with every
breeze, with every ripple. Strong souls also have
their times of darkness, weariness, hopelessness; and
perhaps no depression is more terrible than that of
strong souls when they are cast down. But God, in
all His majesty, remembers that we are but dust.
This Man with the reed knows all the mystery of
sensitive souls, the pain and perilousness of the hour
and power of darkness, and with a consummate art of
sympathy known only to Himself does He bring His
people through these inner crises to strength and
victory. The mother of Moses placed the babe in an
ark of bulrushes among the reeds by the river's brink,
and the babe wept. Ah! Moses himself that day was
a frail reed, but Heaven watched over him, and the
reed of the Nile became God's trumpet on Sinai, wax-
ing loud and long. So God's sympathy and succour
bring His children through days of spiritual helpless-
ness into a new power and greatness of character.
Weak and wounded in spirit you may be, but you
must not despair; rest in God, and the bruised reed
shall become a polished shaft in His quiver, a diamond
pen in the hand of the Master of Israel, a measuring-
rod for building into the perfection of beauty the City
of God, a pillar of the eternal Temple. Rest in God,
and the smoking flax shall shine a lighthouse beacon,
a lamp for the golden candlestick, a guiding star, a
•
42
THE SYMPATHY OF GOD.
burning spirit before the Throne. This Man in the
text was crucified through weakness, but He liveth
by the power of God; and though our hearts melt
like water, yet shall we rise to share His sovereign
greatness, glory, and joy.
And we have the same Divine sympathy in all the
hours of our worldly tribulation and suffering. In
the days of His flesh how swiftly and availingly
Christ put Himself in the place of the suffering, and
staunched their tears! His deep, fresh, gentle nature.
in the presence of human anguish flowed forth at
once in rich compassion and strengthening sympathy.
'And Jesus seeing their faith said to the man sick
of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer; thy sins are
forgiven' (Matt. ix. 2). So with the woman with
the issue of blood: Jesus turned Him about, and
when He saw her He said, 'Daughter, be of good
comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole' (Matt. ix.
22). And again when He raised Jairus's daughter :
'He took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her,
Talitha cumi' (Mark v. 41)—'little dear,' or 'little
sweet,' as we should say; Christ using the very words.
with which the Syrian mothers awoke their little
ones in the morning. These endearing epithets, these
sweet diminutives, these soft, silvery condescensions—
son, child, daughter, dear-are far away from the
polysyllables of philosophy, but they are none the
less precious for that; they show most clearly, like
pearls at the bottom of a crystal sea, how deep and
THE SYMPATHY OF GOD.
43
I
rich was the heart of our Master, the same heart that
beats responsive to our sorrows still. We are not all
philosophers, and philosophers are not always such ;
we are flesh and blood, and the pathos of life demands
Divine sympathy. Christ Himself was a reed on the
day the soldiers put a reed in His hand; He was
made perfect through suffering; and He is for ever-
more gloriously able and willing to succour them that
are tempted. In all the dark days take fast hold of
His sympathy and strength, and hacked and hewed
as you may be by the keen steel of trial, until not
a green leaf or blossom is left in your life, you
shall become a lute of God, making sweet music for
evermore.
The religion of the first Christians was, in one
word, the religion of the Good Shepherd, the symbol
dear to the poor and the suffering. We are told that
the kindness, the courage, the grace, the love, the
beauty of the Good Shepherd were, to the primitive
saints, prayer-book and articles, creed and canons—all
in one. They looked on that Figure, and it conveyed
to them all that they wanted. In the Catacombs,
where the earliest life of the Church is recorded, He
is often seen in various attitudes caring for His flock.
But we are told that as the ages have passed on the
Good Shepherd has faded away from the mind of the
Christian world, and other emblems of the Christian
faith have taken His place. Brethren, if this be so,
let us go back to the symbol of the Catacombs. That
44
THE SYMPATHY OF GOD.
which made Christ precious to the sorrowful world
then will make Christ precious to the sorrowful world
now. The world is as hard now as it ever was,
life as bitter now as of yore, and we need as much as
the old saints did to nestle in the Shepherd's bosom.
Whilst Science paints the supreme Power as a Cyclops
shaping and dashing worlds and races on His mighty
anvil, whilst Philosophy paints Him as a relentless
Nemesis, let us realise Him as the sweet Shepherd
Who laid down His life for the sheep, and Who
watches over lamb and kid with eternal compassion
and tenderness. This, this is the God we adore. He
shall feed His flock like a shepherd. He shall guide
His flock like a shepherd. He shall save His flock
like a shepherd. 'Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for
Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort
me.'
*
V.
PLAYING WITH FIRE.
'It hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and
it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.'-Isa. xlii. 25.
BE
6
ECAUSE of their unfaithfulness, God gave up
His people to divers judgments, and yet the
prophet has to deplore that Israel failed to recognise
the hand of God in their tribulation; they would not
understand and repent; although they were burned,
yet they laid it not to heart. Consider,-
1. The destructiveness of sin. It hath set him on
fire round about.' It was the purpose of God that
Israel should dwell in safety in a rich and pleasant
land. A land of oliveyards and vineyards, of wells
and watercourses, of precious things of the sun and
precious things of the moon, was the inheritance of
Israel. But the chosen people sinned against God,
they did not walk in His ways, neither were they
obedient unto His law, so He gave Jacob for a spoil
and Israel to the robbers. Sometimes the plague
wasted the land, sometimes the great army of locusts
and caterpillars spread ruin, at other times the land
was devastated by fire and sword. In the text we
46
PLAYING WITH FIRE.
behold invading armies overrunning the country,
spoiling the fair inheritance, leaving it a smoking
ruin. So, brethren, sin has spoiled the world. We
do not keep God's commandments, and the earth, that
would otherwise be a great orb of beauty, is darkened
by the smoke of torment; our nation, that might be
so entirely rich and happy, is plagued with miseries ;
houses which might be paradises are hells; hearts
which might be watered gardens are full of blackness.
Sin brings on men in all ages devouring fire. They
would not walk in His ways, neither were they
obedient unto His law. Therefore He hath poured
upon him the fury of His anger.'
(
(
And let it be remembered that there is nothing
arbitrary in this retribution. The judgment arises
naturally out of the sin. This is very distinctly
taught in an earlier portion of this book. And the
strong shall be as tow, and his work the spark, and
they shall both burn together, and none shall quench
them' (ch. i. 31). The idolater is as tow, and his work
is the spark which ignites the blaze of destruction.
The fire of judgment in which the transgressor perishes
comes immediately out of his sin. It does not require
lightning from heaven, or fire breaking out of the
depths, to destroy the lawbreaker; his work, his idol,
whether that idol may be the filthy image of lust, the
bedizened shape of vanity, the golden god of covetous-
ness, the bloated figure of indulgence, or whatever
else it may be, his idol is the spark. The settler in
t
47
PLAYING WITH FIRE.
California, or in the backwoods of America, carelessly
throws a lighted match into the dry grass; immediately
the fire seizes on the brushwood, it spreads over the
prairie, it kindles the forest, it licks up with its fiery
tongue houses and harvests, it blackens the face of
the landscape and hides the lights of heaven, and the
settler himself and those dear to him very probably
fall victims to the roaring conflagration he so thought-
lessly kindled. When a man commits a sin he throws
the lighted match into the prairie grass, he has set
himself on fire round about, and God only knows what
that fire will destroy, whom it will destroy, where it
will end, and when. Remember when you contemplate
the perpetration of some sinful act that that very act
is an infernal spark kindling fires of judgment which
may not be quenched. Oh, hesitate! you cannot
break the law but it is as fire among the dry stubble,
bringing with it an inevitable train of disasters and
miseries. Leave it off before it be meddled with.
But we turn now to consider-
6
II. The infatuation of sinners. 'Yet he knew it
not.' Yet he laid it not to heart.' The proverb
says, 'The burnt child dreads the fire;' it boldly
trifles with sticks and papers until it is burnt or
scalded, and henceforth keeps a respectful distance
from the bars. This is equally true of men in their
business life. Let a man speculate in some concern
or other that turns out badly, people say, 'Ah! he has
burnt bis fingers.' Now, when a man has done that
J
48
PLAYING WITH FIRE.
beware how you approach him with your rosy pro-
spectuses. He has lost his money with a farm, or a
bank, or a mine, or a mill; do not go to him with a
farm even were it in the land of Goshen, or a mill
even were it the Mint, or a bank even were it the
Bank of England. He will show you his blisters, and
send you away with scant courtesy. As the Orientals
say,
'He who has suffered from a firebrand is afraid
of a firefly;' 'He who has been bitten by a serpent is
afraid of a rope;' a victim is afraid of anything that
bears the most distant likeness to that from which he
suffered. This is rational-if a man acts otherwise
it is because he is a fool.. But men are not thus
cautious in regard to the moral life. There they blind
themselves, deceive themselves, harden themselves,
and when God's judgments are let loose upon them
they will not see, when they are burned they will not
lay it to heart.
What a striking illustration of this we have in
Pharaoh ! The land was smitten, stripped, awfully
afflicted and bereaved, yet the king laid the successive
warnings not to heart; he went on sinning and repent-
ing, repenting and sinning, until at last he perished
in the depths. One would have thought that such
smitings and sorrows would have opened his eyes and
brought him to fear the righteous God, but so strange
is the infatuation of the sinner. The history of Israel
is an illustration on a larger scale of the same blind-
ness and insensibility. How many times did their
PLAYING WITH FIRE.
49
idolatry bring them into trouble! They suffered all
kinds of losses, tribulations, humiliations, and yet
they would not hear, they would not see, until wrath
came upon them to the uttermost in the captivity of
Babylon, in their overthrow by the Romans. But,
brethren, it is not necessary to go to distant peoples
and ages to find illustrations of this infatuation-how
often do we ourselves fail to take to heart God's sharp
yet gracious warnings! Although we are burned, we
do not repent, or we do not repent effectually. A
man has been drinking. He got mixed up with some
merry-making, and indulged over-night all too freely.
The next morning finds him with an aching head, a
parched throat, with fiery veins; he is full of fever
and pain, of shame and remorse; the tears run down
his face; he is bitterly conscious that he has played
the fool, played with fire and burnt himself. But how
often such sinners fail to lay this thing to heart!
They are betrayed again and again and again, waxing
worse and worse. It is the same in gambling. The
man is tempted into betting, and suffers a serious loss.
He is hit, he is bitten, and he knows it. He is at
once, surveying the position in which he has placed
himself, surprised and confounded; his cheek burns,
his conscience is blistered as with a hot iron. But
having recovered himself, he madly throws the dice
again, only to suffer deeper loss and infamy. Never
a week passes now, never a day, but some shop-
man, clerk, secretary, or tradesman is brought into
II.
4
50
PLAYING WITH FIRE.
public disgrace by this very thing. And it is thus
with all kinds of temptation and vice-men begin by
burning their fingers, and end by casting themselves
with two hands and two feet into hell fire. They do
not lay the warnings to heart. After the first trans-
gression their mind is agitated, their conscience stings,
their good name is tarnished, their body racked, but
they still linger at the mouth of the fiery furnace,
and alas too often fall victims to its fury. How is
this? How is it that, whilst we dread the fire which
burns the skin, we do not fear the fire which scars the
soul?
:
(i.) The fire which burns sears. The action of sin
destroys sensibility, so do neglected judgments. 'Were
they ashamed when they had committed abomina-
tion? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither
could they blush: therefore they shall fall among
them that fall at the time that I visit them they
shall be cast down, saith the Lord' (Jer. vi. 15).
There is a time when an individual is sensitive, when
a nation exhibits that sensibility of principle, that
chastity of honour, which feels a stain like a wound;
and the time may come to both when it is possible to
commit abomination without shame. A while ago
I saw a string of prisoners on their way to the county
gaol. One of the prisoners was a young girl on her
way for the first time to prison; the tears were in her
eyes; she seemed overcome with shame and sorrow ;
there might be no doubt about her guilt, there could
PLAYING WITH FIRE.
51
be none about the young creature's shamefacedness
and grief. But another prisoner, an old woman,
showed no sign of shame or sorrow; she laughed
heartily, smoked her pipe, danced a little jig, told the
bystanders that she was going to her hotel, told how
many times she had already been there, and so ran on
with no end of jokes and oaths and laughter. The
hoary sinner had once been like the child at the other
end of the chain, striving to hide her face and her
tears, but habitual sin had done its work, and the
withered criminal could no longer blush. Oh,
brethren, let us lay to heart the first sense of shame,
the first warning, the first rebuke! When a costly
silk gown is accidentally stained for the first time
what a scene of consternation follows, what a bitter
outcry not unlikely hot anger, loud lamentations,
tear-shedding. But there is little to-do when the next
spot is made, and succeeding blots and rents are very
probably accompanied with laughter. When a choice
ornament is unhappily slightly fractured there is
great and sincere distress; but the next accident is
taken lightly, and only provokes the merry rejoinder,
'Oh, it was cracked!' When a thing is stained or
fractured, a spot or crack more or less after that seems
of no great consequence. Begin before the actual
transgression, before the sense of actual guilt; fly at
the alarm of fire, be filled with terror at the smell of
fire, for the fire which burns sears, and after that men
sin presumptuously, greedily.
2003;
52
PLAYING WITH FIRE.
4
(ii.) The fire which burns seduces. If men once
begin to lack sincerity, to disregard the still, small
whisper of conscience, to trifle with the fine health of
the pure and faithful soul, sin, despite all its implied
agony, soon acquires an indescribable fascination-
we suffer through it, and yet we cling to it. To revert
to the immemorial image, the moth, altogether a thing
of beauty, dashes into the lamp, and comes down flop
on the floor a very different creature from what it was
a moment ago; recovering itself, it blindly and madly
dashes once more into the flame, and then crawls in
the dark, and dies in agony in the dust. So men are
fascinated by the flame which consumes them. Spec-
tators say cynically of men injured in health, in hap-
piness, in character, in position, through trifling with
temptation,' He has singed his wings.' Yes, indeed,
true and terrible description. He has singed his
wings; he has injured those sublime faculties of his
nature by which he lifted himself into higher worlds.
The grandest faculties of all, divine instincts, yearn-
ing desire, boundless aspiration, spiritual imagination,
moral love, the vision, the courage, the hope of the
soul-these are the priceless powers damaged or de-
stroyed. Brethren, you need to care little whatever
else may be lost in the struggle of life if you keep
your wings intact; but the fiery arrow that blots your
spiritual glory, that shatters your more than eagle's
wing, is the last, the irretrievable misfortune.
In the whole mystery of iniquity is nothing more
PLAYING WITH FIRE.
53
mysterious than the way in which sin seems to master
the reason of men, and to allure and charm them to
ruin. So Israel was fascinated by idolatry; dreadfully
plagued as they were for their lapses, they could not
resist the glamour. So it is still. Each man is
tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and
enticed.' Who that has once looked down the red
throat of Vesuvius can ever forget it! One can regard
the thundering, raging abyss of fire only with a
shudder, and we should suppose that all visitors to
the burning mountain would be very circumspect, and
keep a respectful distance from the focus of peril and
terror. But it is not so. We are told that travellers
are often strangely venturesome; they will disregard
the guides, although burning masses are dropping close
to their feet, and now and again such presumptuous
ones perish like the moth in the candle. So it is with
men once committed to the hypnotic power of evil-they
linger on the verge of death. Ah, brethren, we have
all need to plead with the mighty Keeper of Israel—
'If near the pit I rashly stray,
Before I wholly fall away,
The keen conviction dart !'
And when He does dart that keen conviction let us
hasten for our life.
(iii.) The fire which burns spares. Strange reason
this, but it is a reason. There was an element of
mercy in the judgments of Israel, and this very mercy
54
PLAYING WITH FIRE.
was misconstrued and turned into lasciviousness.
'Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt
more and more: the whole head is sick, and the
whole heart faint. . . . Your country is desolate, your
cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour
it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown
by strangers' (Isa. i. 5, 7). Children playing with
fire are sometimes only slightly injured, and then they
make light of it and repeat their trifling-they only
singed their dress, only burnt a tiny hole in their
pinafore, only suffered a little scar on their hand
or cheek which did not hurt at all; so they are
tempted on with their rashness, and perhaps in the
end pay very dearly indeed. So it was with the Jews.
They lost a bit of territory, they were compelled to
pay tribute; some of them fell by the sword or were
carried into captivity; they were afflicted in measure,
and they presumed. So it is still. Because sentence
against an evil work is not executed speedily, there-
fore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them
to do evil' (Ecc. viii. 11). Let us be warned; judg-
ment is coming, it will come. The law of retribution
is ever working in human life, in human society; ever
and anon it drops blazing warnings at our feet; and be
sure the day of the Lord will come, when He will
arise and judge the earth in righteousness, when wrath
to the uttermost will come upon the obstinately dis-
obedient. God's 'sparing mercies' appeal to you to
sin no
more. Despisest thou the riches of His
(
6
PLAYING WITH FIRE.
55
te
JA
goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not
knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to
repentance?'
'They laid it not to heart.' Here was the mistake
and sin of Israel, as it is often ours. We reflect
seriously for a while, we mourn, we repent after a
sort, but we do not lay our fault to heart, we do not
deeply, bitterly, finally grieve over it and forsake it.
We are easily led to think of something else, to forget
our folly and danger, to postpone the day of reforma-
tion and conversion. Oh, lay this matter to heart,
cease from this very hour to trifle with hell, lest thou
mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are
consumed, and say, 'How have I hated instruction,
and my heart despised reproof!'
Can He save you? Yes, He can. With a spark
In your throat, a spark in your temper, a flame in your
heart set on fire of hell, the grace of Christ shall
prove sufficient for you. Oh, cry to Him daily! and
He shall quench the kindling fire. Saved by the
power of God, kept by the power of God, men shall
say of you now, angels shall say of you by-and-by,
'Is not this a brand plucked from the burning?'
VI.
THE IDEA AND DUTY OF HUMAN LIFE.
'As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the
same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of
God.'-1 PET. iv. 10.
E consider-
W I. The true idea of human life. 'Stewards.'
We are not principals, proprietors, masters, but
trustees; we cannot regard the wealth of life as
our own; our gifts and powers must not be used for
ends of personal indulgence; we must please our
Lord.
PASANG
Now, it is very remarkable how in our day it has
come to be recognised outside Christianity that human
life is a stewardship. A hundred years ago the great
popular doctrine in sceptical circles was the Rights
of Man; it was the dominant creed of the atheistic
world, and the French Revolution was an attempt
to regenerate society on the basis of this purely per-
sonal doctrine. In those days Christianity was scorned
because it insisted that man was a steward, and that
human life was a ministry. But this phase of sceptical
philosophy is quite unpopular now. Comte tells his
THE IDEA AND DUTY OF HUMAN LIFE.
57
disciples that they have no rights. The most important
object of his regenerated polity is the substitution of
Duties for Rights, the subordinating personal to
social considerations. The word Right should be ex-
cluded from political language. In the Positive state,
where no supernatural claims are admissible, the idea
of Right will entirely disappear. Every one has duties,
duties towards all; but rights in the ordinary sense
can be claimed by none. Whatever security the indi-
vidual may require is found in the general acknowledg-
ment of reciprocal obligations. In other words, no
one henceforth has any Right but that of doing his
Duty.* So the oracle of Secularism repudiates the
Rights of Man, recognises the imperativeness of the
social conception in human life and progress, insists
that we have duties only, the supreme, all-compre-
hending duty being that we live for others. The
individual exists for society, not society for the indi-
vidual. Now, Christianity never says that men have
no rights; it never affirms that the individual exists
for society; it never ignores personality after the fashion
of Comte-its philosophy is far wider and more deli-
cately poised than that; but it does clearly and firmly
hold that with indefeasible personal rights human life
is a stewardship, and it is a matter of interest that
scepticism itself should have been driven to give this
interpretation of life such full recognition.
But the text affirms that we are the stewards of
* System of Positive Polity, vol. i., 290.
14
58
THE IDEA AND DUTY OF HUMAN LIFE.
'God,' of His manifold grace. Here, then, the partial
agreement of Christianity with scepticism ends, for
Positivism declares that we are servants of humanity.
I utterly deny that we are the servants of humanity
-it is a most degrading doctrine. Our talents are not
the property of society; we do not take our instructions
from society; we do not give our final account to
society. I am the equal, the colleague, the brother of
men, their servant never. With majestic reason and
justice we may set society at defiance, its kings and
mobs, its priests and philosophers. It is a degrading
doctrine to make me the servant of humanity, to
make the law of my life the will of princes, the fashion
of the multitude, or, what is equally bad, the caprice
of philosophers. It is a gigantic system of demoral-
ization. Man the servant of man! To enforce such
a creed is to elevate feudalism into a philosophy,
serfdom into a science, slavery into a religion. We
are stewards of the manifold grace of God.' From
Him we came, trailing clouds of glory; in His world
we dwell; with His riches are we endowed; from
Him we take our supreme instructions; and every one
of us shall give account of himself unto God.
Do we always remember this theory of life? Surely
we often practically forget this, and act as if our gifts
were our own, to be used simply for personal grati-
fication and aggrandisement. A gentleman walks into
his grounds on a summer morning, and delighted
with certain flowers, says to his gardener, 'These are
THE IDEA AND DUTY OF HUMAN LIFE.
59
!
very fine; send a few into the house.' The gardener
distinctly declines to do anything of the sort. 'I am
keeping these against the Show,' is his reply, 'and
I cannot permit them to be cut.' By-and-by the
gentleman orders his carriage to be sent round at a
given time, when once again the coachman refuses to
obey: 'The roads are bad,' 'It is inconvenient,' and
the carriage is not forthcoming. Arrived at his count-
ing-house, the gentleman orders his cashier to write
him out a cheque for £50, but to his astonishment
the clerk decisively objects to draw the cheque; he
'will not allow the balance at the bank to be disturbed.'
How long would a master endure that kind of conduct,
and consent to be shut out of the disposal and enjoy-
ment of his own property? Not for long, be sure ;
some situations would soon be vacant in that quarter.
But we often act thus in dealing with God, using His
gifts capriciously and selfishly, forgetting God's abso-
lute authority and life's larger purpose. Manifold
grace.' 'Manifold' means variegated, many-coloured
as the rainbow is; and just as all the colours of the
rainbow spring out of the sun, so do all the riches of
our nature, all the riches of the world, all the riches
of life, spring out of the fulness of God, and all are to
be used according to His mind, and for the general
welfare of His universe. Whatever we have, we have
received; whatever we have, we must restore. For
of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things:
to Whom be glory for ever. Amen.'
Amen.' We consider-
•
6
60
THE IDEA AND DUTY OF HUMAN LIFE.
(
II. The grand work of human life. As every man
hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to
another.' It is perfectly true that we are the stewards
of God, but it is also true that our great duty as
stewards of God is to minister to humanity. One to
another.' The individual trees of a forest do not need
much from one another; they grow the better, perhaps,
for growing in a brotherhood; they shelter each other,
they benefit by a certain neighbourhood and reciprocity,
but they are not absolutely essential to one another;
if there were but one oak tree in England, only one
on the planet, it would grow pretty much as it does
to-day in the forests of oak. But it is far otherwise
with the human species; we are essential to each
other; one man in Leeds, one man in Europe, would
hardly prosper; it is only in mutuality that the
individual can live and come to the fulness of his
glory and fruitfulness, that the race can reach its
ideal life.
We hear much of a
The rich must help the poor.
socialism that is going to put an end to rich and poor.
How? By making us all poor. The solution, let us
hope, is not that way. The distinctions in society are
first inequalities in nature, and as long as some are
born with ten talents and some with one, there will
be gradations and contrasts in social rank and material
resources. As long as the mountain and valley exist
the inequalities of society will exist; but as in the
economy of nature there is no antagonism between
THE IDEA AND DUTY OF HUMAN LIFE.
61
the height and the depth, the mountain sending its
streams into the valley, and the valley sending its
fertility creeping up the mountain side; so there need
be no war between rich and poor, between capital and
labour, because together they establish that inter-
dependence among men which is essential to the
growth and perfecting of all. The rich man must not
use his wealth to ends of personal luxury, amusement,
splendour; he is the steward of God, entrusted with
five or ten golden talents for the enrichment of the
world; by a thousand ways he must gently and gene-
rously ameliorate the common lot.
The wise must help the ignorant. The man with
knowledge, insight, culture, utterance must share
these splendid gifts with his less instructed brothers—
he must not stand apart and call them cads.' There
is no selfishness more intense than that of intellectual
men; they think their genius, their scholarship, their
taste are certainly their own, and they surrender them-
selves to one of the guiltiest forms of selfishness—the
sybaritism of the intellect. And many women of
education fall into the same subtle snare, using their
mental superiority to ends of personal entertainment
only. At this very day the Church of Christ is full of
men and women of culture, and yet in many places it
is almost impossible to carry on the Sunday-school,
for lack of teachers; the school authorities are com-
pelled to make use of the feeblest and unfittest instru-
ments, in the absence of abler persons rusting on every
6
-
62
THE IDEA AND DUTY OF HUMAN LIFE.
side. Let there be no mistake. Not without a
tremendous penalty can we bury brain wealth, or use
it egotistically. God has given us gifts of imagi-
nation, knowledge, expression, music, song, that we
may plant intellectual flowers in waste places, and
make dull, sad lives bright with thoughts of truth
and hope.
The strong must help the weak. There are many
weak amongst us. Look at the impotent man in the
Gospel. 'Sir, I have no man, when the water is
troubled, to put me into the pool;' such was the
pathetic complaint of the cripple, and the world is full
of cripples waiting for somebody to help them to a
variety of salvations. You say, 'Why didn't the man
tumble into the water bodily, and trust to luck to get
out again? why did he sit there year after year ?'
Brethren, it is easy to ask such questions, but there
are many impotent men still waiting for somebody to
do for them what one might think they ought to do
for themselves. They are cripples, not so much in
their ankle-joints, but higher up; cripples in brain, in
conscience, in will. You help them first over one
stile, and then over another, and you will have to con-
tinue helping them until you get them over the last
stile into heaven, and after that we may hope they
will be more like the angels which excel in strength,
doing His commandments, hearkening to the voice of
His word. 'Ye that are strong must bear the
infirmity of the weak.' Thank God that you are the
THE IDEA AND DUTY OF HUMAN LIFE.
63
strong, and not the weak; that you are the helper,
and not the helped.
But, brethren, there is another side to all this; not
only do the rich minister to the poor, the gifted to the
ignorant, the strong to the weak, but the poor, the
illiterate, the weak, the obscure may also truly and
preciously minister in many ways to the world's
enrichment and blessing. In Italy it is a delight to
see the rich vines creeping from tree to tree; every
leaf is a poem, and it is a fine picture to behold
the landscape full of the glory and fruitfulness of the
lovely tree; all the painters paint the vine, all the
poets sing it. But when I was in that country I used
to look with much interest on what is generally over-
looked-the dwarfed, mutilated, hidden bits of trees,
which to a large extent support the clinging vines, and
hold them up into the sun. These hidden props have
for the most part few leaves and less fruit, but their
service and glory are that they bear up the goodly vine,
with all its wealth of gold and purple; and however
entirely these stumps may be forgotten in the day of
vintage, they made a splendid contribution to the joy
of harvest.
So humble people often make great men possible,
although the world knows the great men only, and
forgets the lowly helper. In the biography of the
Earl of Shaftesbury we have an illustration of the
ministry of the obscure. 'Although there was little
in the home to foster, while there was much to
64
THE IDEA AND DUTY OF HUMAN LIFE.
discourage, the growth of that piety which was to
characterise so signally his after-life, one source of
helpful and tender influence was preserved to him.
There was in the household a faithful old servant,
Maria Millis, who had been maid to young Ashley's
mother when she was a girl at Blenheim, and who
was now retained as housekeeper. She was a simple-
hearted, loving, Christian woman, faithful in her
duties to her earthly master, and faithful in her higher
duties to her heavenly Master. She formed a strong
attachment to the gentle, serious child, and would take
him on her knees and tell him Bible stories, especially
the sweet story of the Manger of Bethlehem and the
Cross of Calvary. It was her hand that touched the
chords and awakened the first music of his spiritual
life. Although not yet seven years of age, there was
in his heart a distinct yearning for God; and to her
he was indebted for the guidance and the training
under which the longing of his heart was ultimately
developed into a settled and intelligent faith. She
taught him a prayer-the first prayer he ever learnt,
a prayer which he never omitted to use through all
the trying days that were soon to come upon him.
And in his old age, especially in times of sickness, he
very frequently found himself in his prayers repeating
those simple words. When Maria Millis was called
to her rest, in her will she left him her watch, and
until the day of his death he never wore any other.
He was fond even to the last of showing it, and would
THE IDEA AND DUTY OF HUMAN LIFE.
65
say,
"That was given to me by the best friend I ever
had in the world."* We have another striking
illustration of the ministry of the obscure in the recent
Life of Henry Ward Beecher. The great preacher,
looking back to his childhood, writes, "I can look
back upon my own early life, and see how one and
another took me, and how one prepared me for another.
I can see how the largest natures did not always get
access to me. It was late in life before my father in-
fluenced me very much. I think it was a humble
woman who was in our family that first gained any
considerable control over me; I feel the effect of her
influence to this day. I next came under the influence.
of a very humble serving-man. He opened up new
directions to me, and gave me new impulses. He was
a coloured man; and I am not ashamed to say that
my whole life, my whole career respecting the coloured
race in the conflict which was so long carried on in
this country, was largely influenced by the effect pro-
duced on my mind, when I was between eight and ten
years of age, by a poor old coloured man who worked
on my father's farm, named Charles Smith. He did
not set out to influence me; he did not know that
he did it; I did not know it until a great while after-
wards; but he gave me impulses, and impulses which
were in the right direction, for he was a godly and
hymn-singing man, who made wine fresh every night
from the cluster. He used to lie upon his humble bed
* The Life and Work of the Earl of Shaftesbury.
II,
5
66
THE IDEA AND DUTY OF HUMAN LIFE.
(I slept in the same room with him), and read his
Testament, unconscious apparently that I was in the
room; and he would laugh and talk about what he
read, and chuckle over it with that peculiarly unctuous
throat-tone which belongs to his race. I never had
heard the Bible really read before; but there in my
presence he read it and talked about it to himself and
to God. He turned the New Testament into living
forms right before me. It was a revelation and im-
pulse to me."*
We all know the great men of the world and of
the Church; we all know Earl Shaftesbury and
Henry Ward Beecher, the great philanthropist, the
brilliant preacher; but how many people know any-
thing about Maria Millis or Charles Smith, a negro on
a little farm in the American wilderness ? And yet
these obscure souls were the stumps that lifted the
rich vines into the sun, and enabled them to bring
forth their golden and purple clusters. Humble people
minister most helpfully to the sustaining and comfort
of one another; the best and largest aid to the people
is that rendered by the people. And the lowliest
members of society often make the greatest men
possible; brilliant, powerful men to-day on every side
of us owe everything to parents, to friends, to servants,
who are hidden from the knowledge of the public as
the dwarf supports are hidden by the vine's luxuriance.
The great ameliorative movements of the world are
Life and Letters,
THE IDEA AND DUTY OF HUMAN LIFE.
67
also vastly indebted to the weak and poor. Everybody
knows of Livingstone, of Bishop Hannington, of Paton,
of Calvert; but the sublime enterprise conducted by
these heroes would be impossible if it were not for
the self-denying work of labouring men, farm-servants,
domestic servants, little children who give and collect
coppers through the land and through the year. Ah!
the poor props in the vineyard are forgotten on the
day of vintage, and we often forget the modest service
of God's hidden ones; but in the last grand Harvest
Home the Lord of the Harvest will not overlook the
faithful service of the multitude who are to-day
unknown.
We all instinctively recognise the supreme worth
of charity, that the greatest among us is servant of
all. We think little of men, however brilliant they
may be, who live to serve themselves; we think
everything of those who live to serve their generation.
In Italy a few years ago Garibaldi died, and the
whole civilised world did reverence at his grave.
Did they mourn a brilliant soldier? The whole world
pauses not to do reverence to a mere soldier, no matter
how famous may have been his victories; it was the
noble disinterestedness of the patriot that awoke the
enthusiasm of the race. Then Victor Hugo passed
away in France, and the Continent was stripped of
flowers to lay on his tomb. Was that magnificent
demonstration in honour of a brilliant poet? Surely
not; the world never buries a mere poet like that; ti
68
THE IDEA AND DUTY OF HUMAN LIFE.
was the spontaneous national recognition of the senti-
ments of humanity. The other day we buried John
Bright with extraordinary honours. Was the outburst
of pathetic lamentation and eloquent panegyric pro-
voked by the knowledge that a brilliant orator had
ceased from amongst us? Not so; we did honour to
one whose whole life was consecrated to the cause of
truth and justice and freedom, who lived to serve his
countrymen on both sides of the Atlantic. In all
ages, in all countries, we reverence sympathy, sacrifice,
service. He Who to-day is honoured above all others,
Whose name is above every name, did not wear a
king's purple, did not attain a millionaire's wealth, did
not grasp a conqueror's wreath, did not create great
works of art, did not speak with the tongue of angels,
but simply came to seek and to save that which was
lost.
Do you say, 'Yes, if I were a Garibaldi, or a Victor
Hugo, or a John Bright, I would rejoice to serve my
generation; but my talent is small, I am only one of
the million'? Brethren, the lily in the field is one of a
million, but it makes the summer air a little sweeter,
for all that; the star of the sky is one of a million,
but it is not less a thing of glory for that; the dew-
drop of the morning is one of a million, yet it leaves
a spot of fresh beauty as it exhales into the light.
The Orientals have a wise saying, 'A little stone in
its place weighs a hundredweight.' The most incon-
siderable people are valuable in their place. Know
THE IDEA AND DUTY OF HUMAN LIFE.
69
:
your place, keep it, and although you may seem only
a cherry-stone to yourself and to society, you shall be
known by God as a foundation-stone, a corner-stone,
a top-stone, elect, precious. Take the key-stone out of
the arch, and it tumbles to pieces. Who is the key-
stone? Each of us is the key-stone, and we cannot
fail in faithfulness without loss to the whole com-
munity. As each hath received a gift, minister it
among yourselves, as good stewards of the manifold
grace of God.'
،
Alas, for us if we live lives of indulgence, slothful-
ness, neglect of duty! We were told lately of a
wealthy ironmaster in the north of England who
has adopted an ingenious contrivance, by which he
may glean some information as to what goes on in his
mansion during his frequent absences from home. In
several of his rooms there is a concealed apparatus in
the walls. Every hour a shutter is silently opened by
the machinery, and an instantaneous photograph is
taken of all that is going on in the room. On the
great man's return he develops these pictures, and
they sometimes yield strange information. Brethren,
we often live as if we might do just as we please,
exercising uncontrolled authority over our gifts, our
time, our wealth, our influence; but subtle laws are
registering all that we say and do, and God shall bring
it all into judgment. He knows our faithfulness and
our infidelity, our selfishness and our serviceableness,
our spirit of indulgence, our spirit of magnanimity.
70
THE IDEA AND DUTY OF HUMAN LIFE.
Blessed are we if our Lord shall find us watching.
'But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart,
My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to
smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with
the drunken; the lord of that servant shall come in
a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour
that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder,
and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites :
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth' (Matt.
xxiv. 48-51).
}
"
T
VII.
MODEST GOODNESS.
‘And all Israel shall mourn for Abijah, and bury him : for he
only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there
is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the
house of Jeroboam.'-1 KINGS xiv. 13.
THE great lesson of the text which I wish to
impress upon you is, that goodness may be
genuine, and yet attain only partial expression. Much
goodness, it seems to me, from various reasons, never
finds powerful and complete manifestation; all that
we can say concerning it is what is said of Abijah in the
text. And yet God knows, He accepts, He rewards,
this goodness. Let us, then, consider the gracious teach-
ing of the passage before us touching that righteousness
which, in consequence of the narrow conditions of human
life, attains only faint and imperfect expression.
I. God can see the real thing in the obscure thing.
The 'good thing' recorded in the text—that is, if
any single special act is intended at all-is unknown..
Commentators make sundry guesses; but it is impos-
sible to say what the particular act of grace was, if
any such act is designed for commemoration. The
72
MODEST GOODNESS.
career of Abijah was not a bold, conspicuous one. You
know what Moses did, what Joshua did, what David
did, but you do not know what Abijah did. And yet
the goodness of the young prince was unquestionably
true. We are assured of the inwardness of his piety.
The good thing was 'in him.' He had a true heart,
a right spirit, a righteous disposition and design.
Whatever might be the good word he spoke, or the
good thing he did, or the good course he pursued, it
came from within-it was full of thought, conviction,
emotion, of noble principle and purpose. The root of
the matter' was in him. The root never shot up into
a grand stem, never cast abroad strong branches, never
held up a harvest of rich, ripe fruit ; but whatever was
above ground of beauty and promise, there was a
living root below. Brethren, remember the inward-
ness of true goodness. Our goodness must not be
merely a matter of social etiquette, of conventional
propriety, of ecclesiastical prescription; it must unfold
from the heart; it must be full of gratitude, love, trust,
and hope. The living God loves living things, and
most of all He loves living virtue. Neither was the
goodness of Abijah lacking in outwardness. It was
found' in him. The original means the very opposite
of what we might easily take it to mean. It was
found in him without seeking; in other words, it was
manifest and indisputable. There are some people
who would have you to believe that there is a great
deal in them; but the misfortune is that nothing very
(
MODEST GOODNESS.
73
precious comes out of them. They believe themselves
to be full of genius, but they lack the gift of expres-
sion. Now, this is a thing to be accepted with reserve.
It has often seemed to me that the most eloquent men
of all are precisely the men who have something to
say, but who labour under some defect of style or
utterance. Speaking on a subject of which their
heart is full, they flash out their meaning in rugged,
hesitating sentences; their stammerings, pauses, vio-
lent gesticulations, astonishing grammar, breakings
down are more effective than all the arts of the orator;
their wisdom, imagination, passion find vent despite
their infirmity; nay, often the very infirmity only
serves the more to convince the audience of the
speaker's conviction and power. And it is the same
with genuine goodness; really in us, it will reveal
itself. Some people are not naturally good organs
for the expression of sublime thought, principle,
feeling-they have defects of constitution, uncouthness
of manner, educational limitations; but if they have
the reality and enthusiasm of goodness it will be
found in them without seeking, and their very frailty
and failure of style will often prove a foil to set forth
with greater impressiveness the divine thing it cannot
obscure. Do not believe in the goodness that ever
fails to display itself. Some people believe that they
are full of noble qualities, but you cannot find any
good thing in them if you search for it with a private
detective. Do not thus err from the truth.
The
pagk
74
MODEST GOODNESS.
A
piety of Abijah was at once true and yet faint, and
God accepted and blessed it.
Brethren, there may be grand character in a man
when circumstances do not serve to bring that cha-
racter out in its full majesty and beauty. Remember
the conduct of that captain, some little while ago, on
board the sinking ship. There was only one life-belt
left, and the generous seaman fastened it on a poor
lad, a stowaway, himself perishing in the deep. Few,
I dare say, would have supposed, five minutes before,
that the rough sailor was capable of such splendid
heroism. Not so long ago a navvy perceived the
imminent peril of a railway train. The train with its
passengers must be smashed, or he might save it with
his life; the train passed in safety, but the navvy
perished. Who would have suspected, five minutes
before, that such grandeur dwelt in the great rough
delver in the earth? Oh, yes! grand qualities are
in commonplace men who jostle us in the streets
every day, only circumstances have not served to
bring out those qualities in powerful dramatic mani-
festations. But God knows all; He beholds the real
in the faint, the conspicuous in the obscure. Men
readily find that in which they delight, that for which
their eye is trained. The botanist will detect a rare
flower where we should see only weeds and grasses;
the geologist will discern a gem when we see only
gravel; the astronomer's eye will seize a star in what
seems to us empty darkness; the mariner will descry
MODEST GOODNESS.
75
a sail where we should see only mist and wave. Now,
God delights in goodness, and in darkest corners and
lowliest forms He recognises and blesses it. He
knoweth the thought afar off, the latent quality, and
reads the living epistle in invisible ink. All that
quiet, retired, homely, commonplace kind of goodness
which men hardly notice, which, perhaps, they do not
notice at all, is precious before God; He knows what
it would have been with greater stimulation and
opportunity.
Do not rebel, brethren, against the dulness, the
flatness, the insipidity of life; do not repine because
your virtues are of a commonplace sort. The 'some
good thing' He sets in a fierce light, and golden
things not written in history are written in the Book
of Life. Everybody can see the cedar of the forest,
the pine tossing on the hill, the hedge with convolvu-
lus and wild rose; nay, if it comes to that, they see
even the flower of the grass. But who sees the grass?
He Who made the grass to grow upon the mountains,
He knows every blade of it, and for every blade has
recognition, rain, sunshine, dew.
II. God can see many things in one thing.
'Some good thing;' one good thing standing for
many good things, for all good things. As I have
just pointed out, we are tempted to complain at the
insipidity of life. Now, I wish to notice the tempta-
tion we are often under to fret at the narrowness of
life. Our life does not afford occasion to illustrate
76
MODEST GOODNESS.
many virtues, not to play many parts, not to achieve
many works, and we are in danger of making our-
selves unhappy over these limitations. How often
that pathetic word 'only' is on our lips! I am only
a Sunday-school teacher; I should like to go out on
a wide circumnavigation of charity, but my circum-
stances are such that I am shut up to a few children
on the Sunday afternoon.' 'I can give a small contri-
bution only; I feel the powerful claims of God's
work, and should delight to render substantial assist-
ance, but it is beyond my power.' 'My influence is
confined to my home and immediate neighbourhood;
here I do a little good, but it is my only service.'
Very often indeed do we utter that word 'only' with
a sense of real disappointment and grief.
Let us remember, my brethren, that God accepts
your 'only,' seeing He gave you no more than that.
The assayer does not need to test the whole golden
talent; a few ounces in the smelting-pot is enough: the
draper does not need to unroll the whole web; a few
yards will reveal the beauty and value of the fabric:
the merchant does not need to examine the bulk
throughout; a handful is enough to show the quality
of wheat or wool. Life may afford few gifts, few
opportunities, but the few are enough to show what
we are made of, and what it is that we mean. God
knows the quality of a man from the accomplish-
ment of one simple calling. One act was quite enough
to demonstrate the character of Grace Darling, and
MODEST GOODNESS.
77
to cover her with glory. One act at Harper's Ferry
was quite enough to display the spirit of John Brown,
and to give him rank with the immortals. And one
calling worked out faithfully day by day is sufficient
to reveal in any of us the hero, the saint, the martyr.
Does any one object, 'I can understand how one historic
act revealed grand character in Grace Darling or John
Brown; but my calling is altogether simple and mono-
tonous, giving no place for the dramatic'? Brethren,
all faithful men are building better than they know.
Do you believe that when Grace Darling went out to
the wreck she understood the magnificence of what
she was doing? Do you believe that when John
Brown resisted the slave-drivers of Texas he com-
prehended the grandeur of the act, and that he
foresaw the Army of Emancipation would chant for
its Marseillaise-
'John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave,
But his soul is marching on'?
Surely not. These grand men and women were sur-
prised to discover the gloriousness of their deed-they
did their simple duty, and awoke astonished to find
themselves famous. So God can see the intrinsic and
immortal merit of all faithful action, and in a narrow
sphere, in a poor part well played, He recognises the
potency and promise of universal virtue.
When the spies returned from the brook of Eshcol,
with a 'branch with one cluster of grapes,' it was quite
78
MODEST GOODNESS.
12
sufficient to express the opulence of the land. That
one cluster told all the story of Palestine-of its rich
soil, its living waters, its brilliant sun, of its flocks
and flowers, its vintages and harvests-all were re-
vealed in the solitary cluster borne between two upon
a staff; and in the one good part that a man in this
mortal life plays handsomely God can see the fulness
of moral perfection, the riches of the land of upright-
ness, in the lengths and in the breadths thereof.
'Faithful in a few things.' It is but 'few things
that we have here; still we have enough. The painter
has only a few colours out of which to paint his
pictures, but what a wealth of glory he brings out
from the meagre palette! the musician has but a few
notes, and yet what a world of ravishing sound he
brings out of the few chords! We have all but
few things, some of us very few-few talents, few
opportunities, few days-and yet if we are faithful
and diligent we shall work out an exceeding and an
eternal weight of glory. Faithful in a few things, He
shall make us rulers over many.
III. God can see the greatest thing in the least thing.
Just as we complain about the dulness of life and
the narrowness of life, so we complain about the
poverty of life-we cannot do magnificent things or
give princely gifts. But we forget that God can see
the great in the small, the greatest thing in the least.
If the least thing has a great principle in it, it is great ;
if the least thing has a true love in it, it is great; if
E
79
MODEST GOODNESS.
¦
the least thing has a high aim in it, it is great; and
although men may see only the least thing, God
regards the essential thought and quality and aspira-
tion, and blesses accordingly. See the Gospel story
of the widow casting her two mites into the treasury.
When the priests came to count up the contributions
for that day they would think little of those two dirty
pieces of copper. It is a touching, instructive spectacle
to-day to watch the stewards in the vestry counting the
collection. A gracious glow of gratitude is kindled
by the bit of gold which is rare; a sweet satisfaction
welcomes the piece of silver; but the copper is
shovelled off with slight grace or ceremony. Well,
I dare say the copper sometimes justifies the con-
tempt with which the stewards treat it; some people
give copper who ought to be ashamed to give it, only
such may be quite sure that God will pay them back
in copper. But, brethren, how much sometimes does
the copper mean of self-denial, faith, and love! There
are few collections, perhaps, but the glory is in the
halfpence, however stewards and trustees may reckon.
When the widow dropped her two scraps of dirty
copper into the treasury, in the eye of Christ they
were not copper at all, but gold, and abundance of
gold beyond all that David or Solomon ever knew.
Reckoned by the arithmetic of love, weighed in the
balances of truth, Christ saw gold enough there to
cover all the walls, and pillars, and domes, and gates
of the Temple. She gave more than they all. 'You
80
MODEST GOODNESS.
take a cup of water out of the sea, but where is the
blue?' asks the German poet. Yes, we seem to miss
altogether in the small thing the charm, the mystery,
the splendour that goes with mass, magnitude, number,
space. But God can see the blue in the cup; He can
see the sublimity of small services, small works, small
gifts. In the cup of cold water that you give in His
name He beholds an Atlantic Ocean of faith and
charity, paved with jewels, rich with music, reflecting
in itself a whole heaven of glory.
It is not the great thing, but the true thing, that
God asks, and it would often be to our peace of mind
to remember this. The Earls of Lincoln held their
title and estates from the throne on the condition
that they gave to the king annually one white rose
in the time of roses. Now, that was not much to give;
white roses are abundant enough and cheap enough
in the time of roses, yet was it enough. It was a
lovely sign of loyalty; it signified that these nobles
held all from the throne, and for the throne, and
that they would be found by the king's side whenever
they were summoned. So God is not ever asking
from us the great, the costly, the difficult, but rather
the easy, the simple, the practicable-the one white
rose in the time of roses; and if we cheerfully, lovingly,
loyally render that modest service it is enough in
His reckoning to Whom things are neither great nor
small. If the smallest thing is the only possible thing
it is a king's ransom.
MODEST GOODNESS.
81
'So I ask Thee for the daily strength
To none that ask denied
And a mind to blend with outward life,
Still keeping at Thy side;
Content to fill a little space,
If Thou be glorified.'
IV. God can see the fulness of things in the first
thing.
Just as we complain about the dulness of life,
the narrowness of life, the poverty of life, so do
we complain about its brevity. But God can see
the end in the beginning. In Abijah's first act God
saw the fulness of the longest life. In the acorn He
sees the oak. Tradition tells us that Titian happened
one day to see the sketches of a lad who had entered
his school-or, as another account relates, the painter
accidentally noticed a lad drawing roughly on the
public wall-and the great artist divined at once that
another painter of power had been born into the
world; and so it proved, for that boy was Tintoretto,
who was destined to divide with Titian himself the
artistic glory of Venice. That lad's drawing was, be
sure, rather a poor affair to a common eye, but the
eye of a master saw in it galleries of masterpieces.
This is but a faint image of God's insight and fore-
sight. In first rude sketches of character and action
He distinguishes the artists, the cartoons, of eternity.
Life may be short with us, but that is no matter; let
us see to it that it be true. And it was in the heart
of David my father to build an house for the name
II.
6
82
MODEST GOODNESS.
of the Lord God of Israel. And the Lord said unto
David my father, Whereas it was in thine heart to
build an house unto My name, thou didst well that
it was in thine heart' (1 Kings viii. 17).
(
Let us find encouragement here to make the best
of our commonplace lives. We often feel religion
to be the sphere of greatness, the sphere of the
splendid and heroic. In reading our Bibles, and in
reading Christian history and biography, we are in
contact with great men, grand deeds, with crowns of
thorns, which are also crowns of supreme and immortal
glory. The time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and
of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David
also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: who through
faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, ob-
tained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched
the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out
of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight,
turned to flight the armies of the aliens' (Heb. xi.
32-4). Now, in all this marvellousness and valorous-
ness, in all this romance of doing and suffering, we
have the very least part; our lot forbids. But let us
not be discouraged. The God of Abraham, of Moses,
of Joshua, of David is also the God of Abijah; and if
we cannot rank with great leaders and do marvellous
things, God knows what we can do, and exacts from us
according to what we have, and not according to what
we have not. Let us not ask for much material, many
spectators, great parts, long time; life is a question of
MODEST GOODNESS.
83
quality, principle, faithfulness. We do not want great
things to make us great, or to prove that we are great.
The daisy-modest, wee crimson-tipped flower-was
theme enough for Robert Burns to prove himself a
prince of poets; a single string, stretched across. a
wooden shoe, was enough for Paganini to prove himself
a prince of musicians; a bit of canvas, a few inches
square, was enough for Raphael to prove himself a
prince of painters; and in a dim corner, with a lowly
task, with a short life, with no spectators but God
and the holy angels, we may attain and reveal the
veriest greatness of soul. "By patient continuance in
well-doing" let us "seek for glory and honour and
immortality, eternal life.”
1
VIII.
THE RESISTIBILITY OF EVIL.
'But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart
to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of
the land?'-ACTS v. 3.
THE
HE Bible is a book of personalities—it has nothing
to do with personifications, powers, streams of ten-
dency; whether it be a question of good or evil, we
have to do with persons. In the passage before us
the personality of the Holy Ghost is clearly recognized;
we must do violence to the natural sense of the whole
passage if we are to deny this. And Satan here is no
figure of speech; he is a terrible personality, one with
consciousness, purpose, will. It is a mysterious thing,
certainly, that such a spirit should afflict the universe,
but if we are to reject all mysteries in theology our
creed will very inadequately reflect and interpret the
mysteries of life.
What I wish you now specially to consider is the
resistibility of evil. This is the grand moral of the
text. Satan's existence, power, action are distinctly
and fully assumed, and yet Ananias is held responsible
for the result of the temptation. Why hast thou per-
1
THE RESISTIBILITY OF EVIL.
85
mitted it? Why hast thou surrendered thyself to
the tempter? Why hast thou sold thyself to work
wickedness? Now, we are all quite ready to lay the
blame of our bad conduct on the tempting power.
Supernatural evil comes in like a flood, and we think
there is much to be said for us if we are swept away
by its violence. We almost pity ourselves as its help-
less victims. We have been told that in Oriental
lands robbers employ magic to effect their nefarious
purpose, their victims lying with their eyes wide open,
yet utterly unable to speak or move, helpless spectators
of the spoliation of their homes. Some men persuade
themselves that they are similarly helpless in the
presence of the arch-thief, whose business it is to
despoil and blast human lives. Not so, says the text.
You can resist the devil, and if you do he will flee
from you. Where is the magician who would make
you to lie with eyes wide open whilst he ran away
with your gold and jewels? And be sure there is no
enchantment in wickedness which may prevail against
a sincere and steadfast soul. My brethren, it is of
supreme importance that we understand this matter
aright, and are fully persuaded of the resistibility of
evil. There is a feeling amongst us that evil is well-
nigh invincible, that it is almost a matter of despair
to enter into conflict with it, and that if we are saved
at the last it will be with the skin of our teeth.
a feeling is altogether false and fatal. There is
no magic about wickedness, no invincibility about
Such
86
THE RESISTIBILITY OF EVIL.
temptation; no overwhelming triumphal power pertains
to iniquity in the grace of God man is master of the
situation, and despite all hell, holds fast his integrity.
(
I. The very epithet we use to express the action of
evil implies the resistibility of evil. Satan is the
tempter; we are the tempted; the initial action of
evil is known as temptation. Now, the word 'tempta-
tion' is only another word for experiment, or trial; to
speak of submitting a person to temptation is equiva-
lent to saying that he is being submitted to an experi-
ment. And thou shalt remember all the way which
the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the
wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to
know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest
keep His commandments, or no' (Deut. viii. 2). It
was the design of God, through certain discipline, to
show Israel what was in his heart. Satan also tempts
men, makes experiments upon their moral nature--
there being always this great distinction between the
trial of God and the trial of Satan: the one is ever
aiming to realize the good that is in us, and to purge
the evil, the other to realize the evil that is in us, and
to purge the good. But whatever may be the bias
and design, uncertainty is of the very nature of tempta-
tion; the result may be this, it may be that, it may
be the other. To make an experiment on a thing is
not to coerce it; it is to test and declare it. To say
that we are tempted is to say that we are being tried
as to whether we will or will not do a certain thing,
<
THE RESISTIBILITY OF EVIL.
87
as to whether we will or will not follow a certain
course of action, contingency being of the essence
of the case. When Satan makes an experiment upon
us he may possibly succeed, he may possibly fail,
according to the quality of our nature, the bias of our
heart.
Christ calmly and confidently affirmed, 'The prince
of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me' (John
xiv. 30). In Christ was nothing that owned the sway
of the prince of this world. Jesus Christ was pure
gold; as such He went into the crucible, as such He
came out again. The alchemists of old sought to
transmute base metal into gold; the devil seeks to
invert that experiment, and turn gold into cinders,
which can never be done in the physical world, much
less in the ethical. If you are of the baser metal in
your inmost self-I do not care how much gilt you
put on the surface, and I do not care whether you
have got the Church to put the guarantee of its hall-
mark on your gilt-if you are at the centre base metal
when you are put into the crucible, base metal you
will come out, despite all gilt and guarantee. But if
there is nothing of the devil in us he can get nothing
out of us. Temptation is experiment; it does not
make the man; it manifests him. It is a question of
revealing the secret of the heart; there is no com-
pulsory coercive power about it, to make you some
other self, of which in your inmost heart you do not
approve. Loyal to the truth in your deepest thought
88
THE RESISTIBILITY OF EVIL.
and sympathy, the black storm may bow you down in
its savage fury, but having done all, you shall stand;
rotten at the heart, when the storm comes you fall,
and great is the fall. Experiment demonstrates; it
does not necessitate.
II. The method of its approach and action indicates
the resistibility of evil. The devil uses deceit. He
beguiled the woman. He is a liar from the beginning.
He resorts to devices, wiles, snares. He comes in the
dark. He transforms himself. Temptation is allure-
ment, cajolery, flattery, seduction. Every man is
tempted when he is drawn away and enticed. Evil
comes in the wriggle of the serpent. All this language
is consolatory to us so far as it reveals the weakness.
that underlies all wickedness. Strong men do not
resort to these equivocal methods of procedure; they
wear no masks, proffer no bribes, tell no lies. Omni-
potence never tempts; it smites in the light. Weak-
ness-tempts; that is, it seeks to make up in stratagem
what it lacks in authority and strength. The devil
comes as a conjuror, not as a conqueror; all the action
of evil is subterfuge, sinuosity, ambuscade, masquer-
ade, illusion, and infinite sophistry.
What does all this mean to us? It means that the
power is with us, even in the hour and the power of
darkness, and if we only truly love what is pure and
good we shall prevail. The fowler setting his net
shows incontestably that we are free; the destroyer
proffering a cup of sorcery confesses he has no autho-
THE RESISTIBILITY OF EVIL.
89
6
rity to smite or bind; and seeing the serpent wrig-
gling in the grass, it flashes upon us in a moment
how easily we may bruise his head. Do not speak of
the irresistibility of evil. Irresistibility does not trick
itself out in motley disguises, does not lie, does not
resort to dalliances, seductions, mirages, frauds, does
not find its chief weapon in a magician's rod. Be true
in the inward parts, and you shall be more than
conqueror. The 'properties' of a sorcerer-mirrors,
vapours, charms, incantations, and talismans-will pre-
vail nothing against the armour of light; the liar of
ages will not deceive the simplicity of a little child;
the vision of the kingdoms fails to dazzle the sincere
heart. For the mystery of lawlessness doth already
work only there is one that restraineth now, until
he be taken out of the way. And then shall be re-
vealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall
slay with the breath of His mouth, and bring to
nought by the manifestation of His coming; even he,
whose coming is according to the working of Satan
with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with
all deceit of unrighteousness for them that are perish-
ing; because they received not the love of the truth,
that they might be saved. And for this cause God
sendeth them a working of error, that they should
believe a lie that they all might be judged who
believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteous-
ness' (2 Thess. ii. 7-12). The root of the whole mat-
ter is here. Do you love the truth in your inmost
:
:
90
THE RESISTIBILITY OF EVIL.
heart? Do you love righteousness? Are you pre-
pared to follow truth and purity at all sacrifices, to
live by them, if necessary to die by them? Then no
mystery of lawlessness, no lying wonders or deceit of
unrighteousness, shall lead you astray; but you shall
hear a heavenly voice saying, 'This is the way,' and
walking in it you shall be safe from fear of evil.
6
III. If evil were irresistible it would possess a
power which God does not permit Himself to exercise.
God respects the nature He has given, and does not
compel us along any line of action. Behold, I stand
at the door, and knock.' Thus Heaven approaches
us. The heart of man seems but a hut of clay, yet
before its lowly door stands the Majesty of the skies,
asking admittance. God respects the freedom that
He first gave, and if He ever enters into that inmost
place in which we live we shall have to turn the key,
to draw the bolt, to lift the latch. He knocks, but
does no more. God made the human heart to be
opened only from within-He will never force it from
without; and be sure what God will not do no other
power will be permitted to do. Does any one say, I
have done wickedly, but I could not resist it ; what
can we do, with our ignorance and frailty, in the
presence of all the craft and energy of the world of
wickedness? Brethren, we both can and do keep God
out of our heart. He has stood knocking, entreating,
and constraining us with infinite grace, and yet to
this hour some of us have kept Him out of our life,
THE RESISTIBILITY OF EVIL.
91
WH
would not have Him to rule over us. And surely we
can keep the devil out. The supreme deceiver may
post himself before the windows of our soul; he may
seek to impose upon us through our senses, with cle-
verest blandishments; standing in the street outside,
the magician may display his delusive charms, work
his spells, unroll his sparkling deceits, dangle his
glittering bribes, fill his cup of sorceries to over-
flowing, sing his syren songs, and we cannot all at
once drive him from the windows; he will not move
on with many tellings; but as sure as we are men he
can never put his sooty foot across the red threshold
of our heart except we agree to it. And the Lord
said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to
have you, that he may sift you as wheat' (Luke xxii.
31). So far is the kingdom of wickedness from
possessing absolute power. The French proverb is
right, 'The devil goes away from a closed door.'
The door of the soul is sacred; no hand must force it:
keep it shut, latch it with caution, bolt it with reso-
lution, lock it with prayer, and all hell may gather
about in rage and wrath as the men of Sodom did
about the door of Lot, yet shall they be baffled and
defeated. But once leave the door ajar, begin com-
promisings and coquettings with evil, and the devil
will soon be your guest and your master.
IV. Evil is being constantly vanquished. I do not
know anything more terrible than that we should
become possessed of the notion of the invulnerability
92
THE RESISTIBILITY OF EVIL.
of evil; if we once believe this, it means absolute
paralysis and defeat. Cortes sought to make the
Mexicans believe that a Spaniard could not be
wounded, that he could not die; and hence when a
Spaniard fell his comrades carefully buried him, to
keep up the illusion which filled the poor Mexicans
with dread, and which altogether unnerved them on
the day of battle. We must entertain no belief like
that about evil. Blessed be God, the spirits of
wickedness are being bruised and trampled under
foot every day.
This book is full of the records of victory over
temptation and sin. And what is the grand moral
of the victory of our Lord over the temptation of the
wilderness? Is not the moral of that splendid victory
the powerlessness of the devil in the presence of faith,
humility, sincerity, purity? And I rejoice to think
that in the Saviour's strength His victory is being
ever repeated. It is ever going on; dark and terrible
temptations are being spurned every day.
' What's done we partly may compute,
But we know not what's resisted.'
•
Yes, we see what is done; the ugly side of life is
very palpable; if anybody goes to the bad we all know
it-all the sad stumblings, fallings, defeats are pro-
claimed from the house-top. But we know not what's
resisted. All around us every day magnificent moral
victories are being scored; if our eyes were opened,
THE RESISTIBILITY OF EVIL.
93
and we could see everything that is going on about us
to-day, many a sublime spectacle would inspire us
with wonder and exultation. Now a young man has
the cup of guilty pleasure pressed to his lips, but in
the critical moment on which hangs eternity he dashes
it to the ground; now a young maiden, by the grace
of Heaven, turns away from some alluring cluster,
keeping her purity and her paradise; now some
working man with strong animal besetments reso-
lutely puts them aside, maintaining temperance and
honour; now a struggling tradesman prefers honesty
to gold; now a politician loses an election rather than
lose self-respect; and now a rich man voluntarily
submits himself to severe discipline lest plenty should
corrupt him. In secret places moral battles are being
fought out with terrible earnestness and glorious
success. Poor human nature! we often get the worst
of it. We are knocked over, knocked about, knocked
under, knocked out, but we do not always get the
worst in the bitter fray. Pressed, baited, cornered,
agonized, we rise up in the strength of God, and hell is
trampled under foot; out of weakness we wax strong,
and put to flight the army of the aliens. Brethren,
do not permit yourselves to think that wickedness is
irresistible. You have innumerable brothers and
sisters in tribulation, who by God's grace in miry
pathways walk with unspotted robes, and the same
grace shall be perfected in your weakness. The
Jewish tradition says "The devil cannot overcome
94
THE RESISTIBILITY OF EVIL.
Ju
any one except he first see his face.' Turn your face
to the light, your back to the devil, and you shall
never perish.
Two things in finishing. And the first is this: If
you do not want Satan to fill your heart, take care
that God fills it first. Why hath Satan filled thine.
heart?' The first sufficient reason was that he found
it empty. Of the primitive Christians we read,
'And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.'
Oh, how much that means! They were full of pure-
ness, unselfishness, strength, holy joy, enthusiasm,
love; and Satan could do nothing there. He might
as well have tried to put darkness into the sun, or to
have emptied the Pacific Ocean into the bed of the
Atlantic. The disciples were safe in the expulsive
power of a supreme affection for beauty, and truth, and
love. Here is our safety. When the devil finds an
empty brain he fills it-fills it with false ideas, wicked
plans, spotted dreams; when he finds empty hands
he fills them with mischiefs; when he finds an empty
heart he fills it—fills it with vanities, burning passions,
vicious sympathies and delights. If you wish to be
saved from temptation's power, keep your heart full
of the love of God, your hands full of noble work, your
mind full of high thought and desire. The old poets
had a conceit that vermin were killed by the scent of
the rose; the sweet thing was safe in its own fragrance.
I am afraid the pretty notion is not altogether correct;
but it is altogether true that our nature finds safety in
6
:
THE RESISTIBILITY OF EVIL.
95
its own vital pureness from the spoilers of the moral
universe.
'Mine be the heart that can itself defend.
The concluding thought. You say, perhaps, 'Satan
has filled my heart; I am afflicted by the power of
evil. Oh, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver
me from the body of this death?' There is hope for
all sold under the power of sin. It seems hopeless, but
the dispossessing Power is sufficient. It is hard work
for a landlord to evict a bad tenant who has made up
his mind not to go. He will not go out for the telling;
you cannot frighten him out, you cannot coax him
out, you cannot starve him out, and it is only when
the king's officer comes that you get rid of the
objectionable party. It is terrible work indeed to get
the diabolism out of our life, to evict the devil from
our heart. The Rationalist says, 'I will persuade
him out,' but iniquity does not yield to argument.
The Optimist says, 'I will coax him out,' but passion
does not yield to blandishments. The Legalist says,
'I will frighten him out,' but lust will not yield to
law. The Ascetic says, 'I will starve him out,' but
pride, and selfishness, and sensuality do not yield to
discipline. The Pessimist says, 'Death shall pull
down the tabernacle, and so give us relief from the
ghastly dilemma.' To find relief only in the de-
struction of the house is to confess ourselves utterly
vanquished. 'Not that we would be unclothed.
96
THE RESISTIBILITY OF EVIL.
Brethren, appeal from earth to heaven. The strong
man armed shall bind the strong man, and utterly
eject him. Seek the delivering Christ, and although
your fetters have been riveted upon you through years
of transgression, you shall be led into liberty and
peace. Evil irresistible! Never. Thine is the king-
dom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and
ever. Amen.'
"
}
IX.
THE UNREASONABLENESS OF
UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.
1
'And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there
a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto
him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding
garment? And he was speechless.'-MATT. xxii. 11, 12.
TWO
WO points require consideration, so that we may
fully apprehend the special teaching of this
passage.
I. The indispensable thing. The 'wedding garment
is the figure or emblem of some qualification, for the
lack of which qualification we must finally be rejected.
What does this garment mean? what is the indispen-
sable thing? On what ground will our salvation be
determined? on what does a man's destiny turn?
The final test is not social. To see the way in
which men toil for gold and greatness, we might
easily think their salvation depended upon their
success in this direction, only we know full well that
it does not. When Christ told the parable of Dives
and Lazarus He taught in very solemn fashion that
whatever the indispensable thing might be, it was
not a purple robe.
II,
7
98
THE UNREASONABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.
The final test is not intellectual. Some of our
thinkers are inclined to believe that we are not
naturally immortal, and that the attainments of im-
mortality will depend upon the measure of our intel-
lectual perfectness. The masters of sound, and form,
and language may prove immortal, but all who have
not attained to a certain line and mark of culture will
be dropped into the limbo of abortions. Now, there is
not a hint of this in the Bible. No.; our destiny is
not to be decided upon grounds of genius or culture.
Whatever the wedding garment may stand for, it does
not stand for a scholar's gown.
-X
The final test is not ecclesiastical. Our destiny is
not in the power of the Church. The Roman Catholic
Church is never weary of reminding us how Christ
gave the keys of heaven to Peter, and in Peter to the
Church; in Rome they paint that legend on every
wall. No, those keys do not dangle from the girdle
of any pope, or prelate, or president. What an awful
thing to think of any man, or indeed any number of
men, possessing such tremendous power! If any man
or corporation exercised that authority, some people
would be kept out of glory who ought to go in, and
some, perhaps, would go in who ought to be kept out.
'He openeth, and no man shutteth; He shutteth, and
no man openeth.' A man's destiny does not turn
upon his relation to the visible Church. Whatever
the wedding garment may stand for, it does not stand
for any denominational livery.
THE UNREASONABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.
99
The final test is moral. The wedding robe is the
emblem of a moral and spiritual qualification. A
wedding robe is suggestive of beauty and purity, and
so in the text. The essential thing in one aspect of
it is beauty of character. We are not to be simply
coldly proper; we must rise to what is generous, noble,
lovely. There is much talk about ritualism, and
there are questions of ecclesiastical ritualism about
which we need care very little; the colour and pattern
of the garments in which we worship God will not
matter much if we only worship Him Who is a Spirit
in spirit and in truth. But there is a ritualism we
shall do well to look after, for God delights that His
servants should serve Him in robes of beauty and
glory. What are those robes? Fustian, worn in
contentment and conscientiousness; mourning robes,
worn in resignation and hope; holiday regalia, worn in
sobriety and pure gladness; the broadcloths of the rich,
unspotted from the world; sheep-skins and goat-skins
worn heroically, for the truth's sake; the purple of
greatness, unsoiled by pride or passion-these are the
priestly vestments of beauty and glory in which God
delights. The Master asks for beatification of cha-
racter, for transfiguration of common life, and thus
adorned and distinguished, 'Ye shall be named the
Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers
of our God.' And let us add that as the essential
thing, in one aspect of it, is beauty of character, so in
another aspect it is purity of heart. The wedding
100
THE UNREASONABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.
!
robe is the emblem of purity as well as of beauty.
The beauty of life must be the outshining of an inner
purity. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
see God.'
Here, then, is the indispensable thing. Life at last
is not a question of social standing, or intellectual
rank, or ecclesiastical relationship; it is not a question
of symbols, sacraments, or creeds; at last life narrows
itself down to one thing as essential-righteousness
of heart, revealed in righteousness of character and
life. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord
with holiness any man shall see His face and live.
Our destiny turns at last upon what we are in the
sight of God, what we are through the grace of God.
'Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who
shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean
hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his
soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.' Clean hands
and a pure heart. So simple is it at last; also, let
us add, so vast and solemn.
L
II. The unanswerable question. 'Friend, how camest
thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And
he was speechless.' Men to-day make a thousand
excuses for unrighteousness, for walking after the
flesh; but there is a profound unreasonableness in
unrighteousness, and we must all know this one
day. If we are found at last before God without
righteousness we must be speechless.
(i) There is no excuse for those who have neglected
THE UNREASONABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. 101
righteousness of life for the sake of worldly interest.
The parable suggests that worldly interest explained
the negligence of the guilty guest, and so many of us
ignore righteousness out of consideration for material
advantage. Now, as a grand rule, you may depend
upon it that high Christian character will run into
lines of social strength and honour; but supposing that
in some cases and periods a man's personal purity
comes in the way of his material interests, ought that
purity to be sacrificed? If it clearly becomes a ques-
tion of our higher life or of our inferior interests,
is there any reasonableness in sacrificing the grand
things of character for the interests of the moment?
If a plant is specially developed in one part of it, it
immediately begins to economize in another part; if
you throw the colour into the leaf you have a poor
flower, if you would bring out the flower in large per-
fection you must sacrifice something in the leaf. You
cannot have it both ways, and you take your choice
between leaf and blossom. The same law finds ex-
pression in man. To cultivate highly the intellectual
powers implicates some sacrifice of rude health; to
specially train and develop the physique requires a
corresponding sacrifice in the delicacy of the mind.
You cannot at once be Samson and Solomon, you must
make your choice, and whatever that choice may be you
must be prepared for some renunciation. Everywhere
we make our election, be it in leaf or flower, in mind or
muscle. but we cannot have full perfection all round.
*
102
THE UNREASONABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.
Now, this dilemma sometimes presents itself in
human life, and we find that if we will cultivate the
moral life, and aim to bring it to a high perfection, we
have to make sacrifices in the material and the worldly.
But if sacrifice is inevitable, if we must suffer some-
where, surely it ought to be on the lower plane of life ;
if it is a question of sacrificing either in the leaf or in
the flower we ought without delay or gainsaying to
deny ourselves in the leaf of worldly things and
sensual things, for the sake of the flower of the higher,
the nobler, the more rational, the more Divine. When
men are called upon to judge between the greater and
the less, the rational man without hesitation sacrifices
the less. But even that is not the question we have
to settle to-day. Brethren, when a man deliberates
between gold and goodness, he does not hesitate
between the greater and the less, he hesitates between.
the greatest and the least; and what can a man say
for himself, standing in the presence of eternal truth
and justice, if it is found that he sacrificed nobility
of soul for the raiment that the moth eats, for the
gold which the thief steals? It is profoundly un-
reasonable. He was speechless."
(ii) There is no excuse for those who have neglected
righteousness on grounds of pleasure. Whenever a
man lowers his character for the sake of happiness,
there is at the bottom a profound unreasonableness in
his unrighteousness. A man says, 'I want to enjoy
myself; I want to enjoy life; it is a question between
THE UNREASONABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.
103
enjoyment and righteousness, and I choose to enjoy
myself.' Brethren, it is never a question between
enjoyment and righteousness; that alternative was
never put to us, and never will be. You wish to enjoy
yourself? Here is the very thing. The emblem of
righteousness is a wedding robe. I am not sure that
John Wesley, or John Knox, or John Bunyan, or even
St. Paul would have chosen this emblem for righteous-
ness; but our Master, with supreme insight, saw right
away into the heart of the Divine thing, and knew that
righteousness in its essence is blessedness. A wedding
robe-not a convict's garb-for righteousness knows
nothing of bitter servitude; not a hair shirt, for a pure
life is not a course of irritating prohibitions and morti-
fications; not a poisoned robe, like the tunic of Nessus,
for there are no secret griefs feeding on a pure heart;
not mourning weeds, for the service of truth is not a
life of tears; not a shroud, for goodness does not mean
death and despair. The emblem of righteousness is
bridal attire, wrought with flowers, bedropped with
gold, lighted with jewels. The convict's rig, the hair
shirt, the poisoned tunic, the mourning weeds, the
shroud-they are not in the wardrobe of the Church of
God at all. These ghastly things are worn by Passion
and Fear, by Avarice, Selfishness, Pride, Lust, Ambi-
tion, outside the Christian Church. All our garments
smell of myrrh. We walk in white, our heads
anointed with the oil of gladness.
Remember this, brethren, the alternative presented
104 THE UNREASONABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.
o us is never between pleasure on the one side, and
righteousness on the other. If that were the predica-
ment, and we chose pleasure, in the day of reckoning
we should have much to say for ourselves. But we
are never put to any such judgment. We are called
upon to decide between noble pleasure and ignoble,
between the bride's spotless white and the harlot's
filthy finery; and what can we say for ourselves when
we stand in the presence of the God of reason and
righteousness if we choose the garment spotted by the
flesh ?
(iii) Neither is there any excuse for those who
decline righteousness on the ground of its impractica-
bility. We are very ready to excuse our imperfections
on the ground of the impossibility of attaining to a
really noble righteousness, or if we could attain it, the
impossibility of maintaining it in a world like this.
It is too hard, altogether impracticable. But what is
the express teaching of the passage before us on this
point? The Oriental king sent the wedding robe to
the invited guest, and he was inexcusable in coming
to the festival without it. Brethren, what is Chris-
tianity but the coming of the King's Son bringing to
us a living righteousness? We could not realize
true goodness in our own strength, but everything is
possible in the grace and strength of Jesus Christ.
Christ can make us pure. It is a most pathetic
sight to see a man trying to purify and perfect himself
morally. For though thou wash thee with nitre, and
(
THE UNREASONABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.
105
take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked
before Me, saith the Lord God' (Jer. ii. 22). How
difficult it is to get a stain out of a delicate, lovely
robe! To wash the garment is to mar its lustre ; if
you attempt to cleanse it with chemicals you touch
the colour; it may be adroitly covered, but it is there;
to scratch it out is to aggravate the misfortune; to
burn it out is to make a hole; to tear it out is to
make a grievous rent. It is much the same with that
ugly blot which so mysteriously dyes and defaces this
nature of ours. Men seek to purge it with philosophy,
to wash it out with tears, to tear it out with violence,
to burn it out with austerities, to stitch over it the
purple rag of etiquette; but it is still there, mocking
all our endeavours, spoiling all our gladness. What
is that you sing ?—
'Jesus paid it all!
All to Him I owe :
Sin had left a crimson stain,
But He washed it white as snow!'
Yes, Christ has done this millions of times, is doing
it now, can do it still for you and for me. There is
no excuse for us if we do not attain to true righteous-
ness; in Christ it is placed within our grasp. 'When
we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died
for the ungodly.' 'If we confess our sins, He is faith-
ful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness' (1 John i. 9).
Christ can keep us pure. Men are apt to think that
106 THE UNREASONABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.
religion is a very fine thing for sanctuaries and sabbaths,
but it is simply incredible that a man should carry it
out, in all its elevation and beauty, in the rough, ugly
world of daily practical life. Look at the bride and
bridegroom on the wedding morning. A day of pa-
geantry that. But then the bride cannot go through
life carrying a bouquet, adorned with orange-blossoms,
lace veil, and sweeping train-these things cannot be
carried into the common every-day world; and the
bridegroom cannot go into the market-place and trans-
act the business of life in lavender kids, patent leather
boots, with an orchid for a button-hole. The ethereal-
izations of the wedding morning are soon put away,
and the bridal pair don much rougher and ruder
apparel for the coarse, stern world of rain and snow, of
household and commercial duty. So we are disposed
to argue sometimes concerning righteousness; we think
in this respect also it is like the wedding robe, a thing
for a rare moment and privileged occasion. We think
it possible for priests, and saints, and mystics, possible
in sacred places ou sacred days, but altogether im-
practicable in the rough, bad world in which we are
doomed to struggle. Brethren, this is a mistake.
Christ Jesus came into this world to make men pure,
and to keep them pure. There is not a man in this
hall this morning, I do not care what his lot may be,
but if he live in close fellowship with Christ he shall
walk in miry streets, at every step brush the unclean,
and yet be spotless and without offence. Unbelief,
A
THE UNREASONABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.
107
unrighteousness, has, then, no justification whatever.
After all that God has done in Christ for our sanctifi-
cation, what excuse can we give if at last we are found
without the righteousness of God which is by faith ?
The father in the parable says, 'Bring the best
robe, and put it on him.' The world is wild after the
best robe-you go to Paris several times in the year
for that; the Church also in some quarters is being
much exercised on the question of the best robe.
Brethren, the best robe is a Divine righteousness
wrought into the heart and life by the Spirit of God,
ever granted to all honest and penitent men. The
robe is brought close to you-put it on, 'put on Christ,'
most glorious dress. It was no matter what other
dress that guest had on, not having the wedding dress;
and it will be no matter what righteousness you may
have at last if you have not the righteousness of God.
Men find a thousand apologies now for a poor, bad life,
but in the great day all sophistries will be silenced,
the unrighteous will be speechless, their doom the
outer darkness.
·
X.
SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY.
'And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them
break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire,
and there came out this calf.'-EXOD. xxxii. 24.
ARON
A
at a great crisis played a very sorry part.
It is a pitiful thing to see a great man fumbling
about in such fashion as Aaron does in the text, but
it is very instructive. We are all apt to disavow re-
sponsibility, and it is very important that we should
consider this tendency in a full, clear light. Consider—
I. The method of shirking responsibility.
C
(i) Aaron attempts to refer back the transgression
to Nature: 'I cast the gold into the fire, and there
came out this calf,' the real interpretation of which
delicate sophistry being that Nature had played Aaron
a dirty trick. Confiding, innocent spirit that he was,
he took the gold and threw it into the fire, and with
one of those wanton eccentricities of which Nature is
so often guilty, there came out the thing of idolatry
and sin. He says nothing about the mould that he
made, nothing about his casting of the image, nothing
about the graving-tool that he lifted upon it; he is
}
109
altogether forgetful of the several tedious links of
cause and effect-he threw the gold into the fire, and
this calf came out. Nature is the sinner, Aaron the
ill-used man.
SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY.
So to-day we blame the universe for our sins and
sorrows. We blame the climate, the soil, the seasons.
The sun is our foe, the stars fight against us, the
fruits of the earth corrupt us, the sea washes us into
fouler stains: human sin and misery are the outcome
of nature and necessity. We reason as if it would
have been very different with us if we had had the
good fortune to dwell in a better universe. If we had
a moral sun, moral stars, moral seasons, we should be
splendid saints; but the constitution of things is vicious,
and our fine ideas and noble sentiments get distorted
in passing through the crucible of Nature; they come
out things of ugliness, idolatry, sin, misery. We are
right; the immorality is in Nature. And so we blame
our physique for our sin and misery. Our instincts
are at fault; our senses are misleading; we are too
heavily weighted with passion. You mean well; so
do I; but throwing our noble ideas into the infernal
crucible of a diseased and disordered organization, they
are always coming forth in actual life in terrible or
distressing shapes. Oh, if only we had pious senses,
moral valves in our heart, sacred cells in our brain,
religious eyes, and hands, and feet, we should do well;
but this body of our humiliation betrays us, ever
changing the fine gold of our purpose into things of
1
110
SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY.
irregularity, and viciousness, and misery. So we are
continually blaming our sins on nature at large, and
especially upon this organization of ours, feeling that
if the constitution of things, in which we have no
responsibility, had only been right, we should have
been grand men and women; but as it is the body
takes half the blame, the planet the other half, and
so they settle the guilt of the calf between them.
(
(ii) Aaron attempts to rest the guilt of his conduct
on society. So they gave it me.' Aaron in the nar-
rative repeatedly represents that he is not so much to
blame as the multitude. So with us still; we yield
to social pressure, and do not act out our convictions.
Sometimes we defer to public violence. "They gathered
themselves together unto [or against] Aaron.' They
came to Aaron in a tumultuous, threatening manner,
and he was afraid of them. In modern life there is
such a thing as being cowed by the anger and menaces
of men, and consciously acting an unworthy part.
Sometimes we defer to public opinion. Great is the
tyranny of public opinion, and many dare not brave it.
We like to be talked about, but few can bear to be
talked against. We stay short of being what we
ought to be, of doing what we ought to do; we go on
to do what we ought not to do, because we cannot
endure the adverse criticism of our friends, neigh-
bours, fellow-workmen, fellow-tradesmen. Sometimes
we defer to public custom. The Jewish rabble wanted
images such as they had seen in Egypt, and Aaron
L
1
11
SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY.
..
111
had not the resolution to withstand them. So now
we often yield to custom and clamour, casting a grain
of incense on the world's altar when we ought to hurl
a stone at its gods. And having in various ways
yielded to the multitude, we leave with them the guilt
of the whole thing.
Aaron blaming the 'people' is an exact picture of
thousands of us to-day. The husband is driven to his
bad conduct by his wife; the wife is ruined by her
husband. Children blame their parents. Companions
blame one another. It is the fault of our school-
fellows, our neighbours, our partners, our rulers, our
trade, our generation. 'Thou knowest the people, that
they are set on mischief." I am right; so are you
right; we all mean well: but it is the crowd behind
that pushes; they carry us off our feet, carry us
whither we would not. It is the great crowd science.
tells us about, that law of ancestry, the power of
hereditary influence-a vast, silent, shadowy host; but
quite irresistible, bearing us on mockingly in whatever
direction it may set. It is the great, surging, brutal
crowd, always at our elbow, called Modern Society. We
are all right, and would transgress no law; but the
crowd behind lifts us off our feet, and runs away
with us.
II. The inadmissibility of the pleas by which we seek
to disavow responsibility. The attempted vindication
of Aaron breaks down at every point.
(i) It was false. It is seen at once that AaroP
|
(
[/
112
SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY.
cannot justly, that he cannot, with any show of reason,
blame this calf either on the fire or on the people;
neither can we, on similar pretexts, disown the guilt
of our doing.
We cannot justly blame our sin on nature. Nature
wrong us! Never! As Young wrote long ago—
'Immoral climes kind Nature never made.'
We wrong Nature. We sin against the sun by the
vile uses to which we put his beams; we pollute the
dew; we profane the flowers; we tarnish gold and
gem; we pervert the grand laws and forces about us ;
we prostitute the music, the beauty, the treasures of
the world to the basest ends. Oh, if this great dumb
world could but speak, would it not utter a mighty
curse upon us for the sad manner in which we have
misused its riches, tarnished its glory, spoiled its
gladness? Whatever else this world may be, it is
worthy better men. Neither can we justly blame our
organization. Our instincts, our conscience, our reason,
all counsel moderation and virtue-if we would only
listen to their noble persuasiveness; but we listen to
our lusts, and not to our reasonableness. All the laws
of God expressed in our constitution are distinctly
and powerfully on the side of righteousness, and sin is
the act of our wilfulness. Before the collier descends
into the pit his safety-lamp is given to him, and lest
he should inadvertently open the lamp and occasion
mischief, it is carefully locked. Everything is done on
•
SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY.
113
his behalf by way of precaution that can be done to
render him secure in dangerous places. What then?
Why, for the sake of a miserable indulgence he renders
void all this carefulness for his safety, he bursts his
lamp to light his pipe; and that man does not perish
alone in his iniquity. It is thus with us in human
life. In our conscience, our reason, in the noble
instincts of our mysterious personality, God has
locked the lamp, and made us, who are free agents, as
safe as free agents can be amongst dangerous elements.
We must outrage our nature throughout before we
can transgress. We do that outrage. We call the
poor pitman idiot, lunatic, madman, fool, for bursting
a lamp to light a pipe; but it is a picture of our-
selves in higher things; we are always violating the
magnificent and generous powers and gifts of our
nature for the sake of some selfish sensual gratification;
and then we turn round and blame Him Who made as
for our sins and sorrows. It is written on our world,
on our constitution, as well as in this Book: 'Say
unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no
pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the
wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye
from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house
of Israel?' (Ezek. xxxiii. 11.)
Neither can we justly blame our sin on society.
Aaron could have resisted the people if he had chosen.
Moses soon resisted them, making short work of their
calf, and Aaron could have done the same.
He was
II.
8
114
SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY.
Ca
an eloquent man, and could have set before Israel most
powerfully the grievousness of the sin they proposed
to commit; at any rate he could have protested and
died. So with ourselves. We talk of the power of
the people, but the people would have a great deal of
trouble to make us do what we really do not wish to
do. A recent writer, who strongly urges the power of
circumstance, says: 'The criminal's usual plea that
"something drove him to it" would therefore seem to
have some foundation."* But it would usually be
found that the said criminal is not at all susceptible
to driving in some directions. It would take some-
thing very strong indeed to drive him to temperance,
or to drive him to work-all the slavedrivers in
creation would hardly manage this. Men are not so
easily driven; they go very slowly indeed in a direc-
tion they heartily deprecate. It would take a tre-
mendous crowd to carry you off your feet into the
wrong polling-booth, and make you vote for the opposi-
tion candidate! It would take a large crowd to carry
you off your feet in business, and bear you away in
a contrary direction to that in which you feel the
profit lies! In politics, in commerce, in many other
worldly things, you resist the crowd, you will not be
put out of countenance; for selfish ends you assert
yourself against the world. Surely for moral and
immortal interests we may assert our independence
and resist clubs, communities, corporations, yea, the
* Nisbet, Marriage and Heredity, p. 82.
}
SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY.
115
race itself. The crowd is never our master. Pilate
condemned Jesus at the brutal demand of the mob,
and then called for a basin to wash his hands from
the guilt and blood of the infamous transaction. If
he had washed one hand in the Atlantic and the other
in the Pacific there would not have been water enough
to make his hands clean; he could easily have dis-
persed the mob, and not having done this his red
hands remained red. In all cases it is the same with
us; we are not made to be forced. And we know this.
When Judas took back the pieces of silver the priests
promptly replied: 'What is that to us? see thou to
that.' They fastened the guilt upon him at once, and
left him on his sole responsibility to deal with the thing
as he best might. This calf came out.' Aaron was
the calf. His lack of moral courage was the root of the
disaster. Brethren, you must not blame the crowd for
your sins; every man must bear his own burden.
(ii) To blame our sin on nature or society is foolish.
Very much is gained if we can see a thing to be
utterly absurd, childish, foolish. Now we feel at once.
the absurdity of the apology of Aaron. It is mani-
festly childish. The schoolmaster requiring to be
absent for a while leaves his pupils, strictly enjoining
upon them order and diligence; returning he finds
furniture upset, windows broken, the whole place in
a state of chaos. Called to account, the scholars
can only declare that the furniture fell; that stones
broke the window; that the general free-fight was an
116
SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY.
unaccountable movement, for which as individuals none
could hold himself responsible. Or a mother going to
market begs her children to be good until she returns.
Returning, she finds her little kingdom in a state of
anarchy and ruin, and yet no boy or girl is guilty.
The crock fell from the table; the dress was torn by a
nail; the pane was broken by a stick; things generally
toppled themselves over, cracked themselves, burnt
themselves, committed suicide on themselves. This
kind of reasoning we know as childishness. And what
course do we adopt with the young bland sophists ?
We very quickly give them an unmistakable lesson on
personal responsibility. We teach them there is no
place in society for It.' Stones, sticks, nails, are not
indictable. We give them a sharp clear lesson on
that wonderful subject 'I,' and make them to under-
stand the fact and seriousness of individual responsi-
bility. We men and women constantly fall into the
same error
error as the children. Instead of looking
responsibility fairly in the face, repenting our folly,
crying, God be merciful unto me a sinner,' we begin
to talk of events, influences, constitutions, conjunc-
tions, environments, and end through infinite falsities
of reasoning by shuffling the guilt upon the mechanism
called Nature, the abstraction called Society.
6
(
Sin makes a fool of a man. The other night we
heard a poor sot abusing a telegraph pole against
which he had damaged his face. He raged against
that pole, swore at it, left it with the sense of a
SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY.
117
1
sorely injured man; the wires above went on mur-
muring the noble music of civilization, but the
inebriate cursed the splendid thing as an engine of
torture. The spectators smiled and jeered, but really
the complaining sot was a striking picture of poor
foolish human nature in general. We are always
dashing ourselves against some of the beautiful bene-
ficent laws of God's world, and then turning round to
blame those selfsame laws for our disfigurement and
misery. We break physiological laws, and the sickly
calf comes out; we neglect educational laws, and the
calf of ignorance comes out; we transgress manifest
political laws, and the bloody calves of revolution
come out; we disregard social and economical laws,
and that ill-favoured calf poverty comes out; we
violate moral laws, and the calf of misery is rampant
everywhere. We blame nature and society for a
thousand ugly things by which we are plagued, but
which are really consequences of our own folly; we
are always railing against the planet, all of whose
arrangements are rational, and good, and generous.
Brethren, we are men, gifted with the sublime power
of self-determination; we are ourselves the cause of
causes, and it is essential folly to attempt to rest the
onus of our conduct on the laws of nature or on the
exactions of society, no matter how cleverly speciously
we may argue. When we were children we reasoned
like children, spake like children, but having become
men let us put away childish things. The last power
118
SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY.
is in the heart of man; we are masters of circumstance,
and by God's grace we can do the thing that is right
and true and pure in face of all opposition, resisting
unto blood striving against sin.
،
(iii) To blame our sin on nature and society is futile.
Aaron does not stand excused; he is severely cen-
sured and punished: Thou hast brought so great
sin upon them' (ver. 21). 'Aaron had made them
naked' (ver. 25). So will it be with us all in the
great day. Our personality will be insisted upon, and
the flimsy reasonings by which we sought to evade
responsibility will be scattered to the winds. Nature
will stand justified.
છે
'The raging fire and stormy sea
Perform Thy awful will;
And every beast and every tree
Thy great design fulfil.'
H
Society will melt into its individual atoms. Every
man will be judged according to the deeds done in
the body, whether they are good or evil, and every man
will bear his own burden of guilt or glory.
6
One word touching the past. We have sinned a
great sin' (ver. 30). So we may all say of ourselves.
We have been guilty of moral cowardice a thousand
times; we have worshipped golden idols, painted idols,
fleshly idols. How precious, was the intervention of
Moses on behalf of Israel! How he flung himself
into the breach, and broke the force of the Divine
anger! Was not Moses here a figure of Him Whọ
SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY.
119
#
(
pleads our cause? If any man sin, we have an
Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for
ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world'
(1 John ii. 1, 2). Do not attempt to rest the blame
of your sin on God; God is right, and man is wrong.
Do not attempt to rest it on creation; the stars fight
for you, not against you. Do not attempt to rest it
on society; the crowd will have vanished, and you
will find yourself all alone at the judgment seat. Do
not attempt to roll it on the devil; why didst thou
surrender thyself to the tempter? Take the sin of
your lifetime upon yourself now, my brother; you will
have to do it some day. Do you faint under it?
does it crush you? does it threaten to sink you lower
than the grave? You may rest it on Another after
all; the great Sin-Bearer. Behold the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world.' Oh! accept
the love, the purity, the peace of God in Him Who
bore our sin and curse and shame.
A last word touching the future. Determine to
recognize fully the fact of responsibility. Permit no
illusions on this matter. Let there be a clear space
all round you; stand out in your own thought solitarily
before the face of God. The full force of responsibility
is yours; accept it, and live accordingly. Resist sin;
resist it promptly, resist it altogether, resist it unto
death. He that is in us is greater than he that is
in the world. Let the spirit of Moses be ours.
*
↓
XI.
GRAVES OF DESIRE.
'And he called the name of that place Kibroth-hattaavah
[the graves of desire]; because there they buried the people
that lusted.'-NUMB. xi. 34.
THE graves of desire.' The last thing that most
people would desire is a grave, and yet how
often does desire conduct to death! We will notice
several manifestations of irregular and destructive
desire, and, in conclusion, show how desire may be
directed and chastened.
I. There is unseasonable desire. The desire of the
people for flesh was not unnatural, not illegal in
itself, but it was unseasonable. This is a common
fault of ours, to desire legitimate things in times and
places which are not convenient.
There is the impatience of youth. The poet writes
truly-
'We cannot live too slowly to be good
And happy; nor too much by line and square.
But youth is burning to forestall its nature,
And will not wait for Time to ferry it
Over the stream, but flings itself into
The flood, and perishes,'
GRAVES OF DESIRE.
121
I
How often do we witness this impatience and its sad
consequences--a broken constitution, a satiated heart,
a premature grave! Everywhere are young men
satiated, wearied, worn out. The course of life with
many in these times reminds us of the days when we
were lads, and when in the early morning we went a
distance to school, taking our dinner with us; then
appetite was keen, and it was no unusual thing to
devour our dinner on the way to school, starving for
the rest of the day. It is thus with thousands of in-
fatuated ones a little later on; in the greediness of
their heart they devour and waste their portion in the
morning of life, and then starve through the long
tedious day, or else go down to a premature grave.
I say to my young brethren, wait, rein in your desires,
move slowly, and every joy of life shall be yours in
turn. Haste is of the devil,' is a saying in the East
popularly ascribed to Mahomet himself. We may
accept the saying in the matter before us; let youth
be moderate, deliberate, avoiding all feverishness,
drawing slowly on the resources of life. If these
Israelites had contented themselves and chastened
their desires, they would have feasted in due time on
the fat of lambs, the finest of the wheat, the blood of
the grape; but they would not wait, and their carcasses
fell in the wilderness. Young brother, be not the
slave of appetite, do not waste your capital, take life
leisurely in its natural order and programme, and
your youth shall be sweet, all your years full of
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GRAVES OF DESIRE.
freshness, and, as Job has it, 'your age shall be as
the morning.'
There is the eagerness of manhood. We should do
little in life without intensity, but there are times
when we may with advantage take in sail, and give
ourselves time for rest and reflection. It is certainly
unseasonable to bring our business life in any shape
into the Lord's Day. Some are so anxious about
business that they encroach upon that day with their
ledgers and letters, and when the books and papers
are not produced their brain is still full of solicitudes
and schemings. Be sure that you keep the sacred
Day intact. Give your body rest, your mind, your
heart. Let not the rush of life violate the hush of
Sabbatic hours. It is also unseasonable to allow
worldly cares and ambitions to invade those spaces
which are so necessary for our domestic and intel-
lectual life. God grants us spaces for rest and
thought in the home, in the chamber; and it is ex-
haustive, indeed, when our overweening worldliness
excludes the possibilities of solitary and social life.
Some men fill their annual holidays with anxieties
until they are no holidays at all. And there are days
of personal affliction, of domestic sorrows, of national
calamity, when it is our solemn duty to pause in the
race for riches and think of life's larger meaning.
Elisha said to Gehazi: 'Is it a time to receive money,
and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards,
and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maid-
GRAVES OF DESIRE.
123
:
servants ?' So there are in all lives clear calls from
God to cease awhile from hot, engrossing, worldly
care, and to go apart for hours of serious thought and
prayer and it is a sad sign when we disregard these
calls. Let us beware of the eagerness of manhood,
which, whilst very noble on the whole, may easily
become excessive and intrusive. On every occasion
that may offer, put on the break; chasten the pride,
the covetousness, the ambition of life.
There is the greed of age. Old men often come to
the grave sooner than they need because they will not
let the world go. They cling to ambition, although
it wastes their strength and peace; they cling to
business, they are pushing, grasping, hoarding as ever,
although such application fast saps a life already tot-
tering; they cling to pleasure, they will still wear
the wreath of roses on their white hair, although to
them it is the most fatal wreath of all. Oh how
beautiful it is to see the aged gracefully and gently
let this world go, knowing that they are being clothed
upon with the house which is from heaven. And the
king said unto Barzillai, Come thou over with me,
and I will feed thee with me in Jerusalem. And
Barzillai said unto the king, How long have I to live,
that I should go up with the king unto Jerusalem ?
I am this day fourscore years old: and can I discern
between good and evil? can thy servant taste what
I eat or what I drink? can I hear any more the
voice of singing men and singing women?' (2 Sam.
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GRAVES OF DESIRE.
xix. 33-5). So gracefully and wisely did the patriarch
turn away from the proffered honours and delights of
an earthly court that he might the better prepare
himself to see the face of God.
Let us beware of unseasonable desire. There is a
time for everything,' and in the strength of the soul
carefully observing times and seasons our life may be
long and happy; but rampant desire ever spurring us
on, solicitude and strain will bring us to the grave
before we have lived out half our days.
،
II. There is immoderate desire. We may pursue
a right object with inordinate appetite. The Israelites
were not content with the simple, pearly, wholesome
food God gave them-they wanted something more
piquant. They got what they wanted-and a grave.
In all generations how many fall the same way! How
many are thus perishing all around us now!
There is the immoderateness of our literature. Never
since the beginning of the world was there a literature
nearly so rich and noble as our own. In our poetry
we have angels' food; in our eloquent philosophy the
bread of the mighty; in our grand theology the corn
of heaven, the wine of God. But to what a large
extent our age turns from all this glorious literature
to the highly-spiced literature of fiction! We must
feast on the romantic, the sensational, the morbid, the
exaggerated. Out of this excess of imaginative litera-
ture come great evils. The reading public live in a
world of fancy, sentiment, passion; and this feverish
GRAVES OF DESIRE.
125
unreality in the hours of retirement gives birth to
much of that practical immoderation which is the
curse of our age. I do not say abandon this literature
of romance; if I did say so I am afraid it would make
little difference; but I do say restrain and chasten
your imagination, for be sure this habit of wild dream-
ing is at the root of much of that general intemperance
of life which hurries many to the grave.
There is the immoderation of our style of living.
A writer was finding fault the other day with the
present style of gardening. He complained that we
have rooted up the old fragrant flowers-lavender,
pinks, marigolds, mignonette, and gone in for crude
patches of red and blue and yellow; that we have
swept away sweet shrubs and bits of lawn for the sake
of violet ribbon-borders and vulgar carpet-bedding.
But, brethren, does not our Italian gardening largely
reflect our social life? Are we not in all ranks of
society straining after effect? Are we not often found
renouncing sweet, simple methods of living for a
showy, ostentatious style which brings with it little
joy?
There is the immoderateness of our appetite. 'I
keep under my body,' said the Apostle. Unless we
are watchful we may easily fall victims to excessive
luxurious living, and many do fall victims to the
desires of the flesh. Thousands are digging their
grave with their teeth, and scooping it out with their
glass. The newspaper told humorously the other
126
GRAVES OF DESIRE.
day about a novel picnic: the holiday-makers could
not get a more appropriate vehicle, so they went in a
hearse, and all unthinkingly spread their luncheon in
the churchyard. It was a grim satire. How much of
the eating and drinking-how much of what is called
indulgence and pleasure-are linked in with mortality!
Strip away the flowers from much of our shouting,
and feasting, and drinking, and there are the hearse
and the grave. Jesus Christ came eating and drinking,
but He also came fasting and praying; teaching us
that whilst we have full liberty to enjoy the good
things of life, we must ever chasten the physical
enjoyment with thought and devotion, protecting our-
selves from the blinding, lowering tyranny of luxury.
There is the immoderateness of business. Im-
moderation in other directions often drives men to
unnatural eagerness in business. Sometimes such
consuming enthusiasm is simply the expression of the
love of money. And there are cases where there is
a really noble purpose within and beyond all the
commercial intensity and speculativeness of the trader.
Yielding to widely differing impulses, men get away
from their natural business and fall victims to the
glamour of that magical ground known as the Stock
Exchange. In haste to be rich they pierce themselves
through with many sorrows.
How fatal all this immoderation is to health! We
fret for money, drinking blood out of a golden basin ;
we are anxious to be great, and the path of glory
GRAVES OF DESIRE.
127
1
leads to the grave; we are mad to seize the flowers
of pleasure, and find the flowers of the churchyard.
Broken sleep, impaired vigour, premature age, are the
portion of all who forget restraint and temperance ;
such come to the grave, not as 'a shock of corn fully
ripe,' but as the seven ears seen in Pharaoh's dream,
'withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind.'
How fatal is all this immoderation to happiness!
There are thousands of successful merchants who
after immense toil and sacrifice have secured wealth
and position, and now they are distressed to find they
have no power to eat what cost so much to get
together. They have whatsoever their soul desireth,
but they cannot taste any sweetness in it. What is
the matter with them? They have lost their appetite
in cooking their dinner. They have wasted in in-
ordinate earnestness of life the very faculties and
powers which are essential to the enjoyment of the
world. How fatal is all this immoderation to charac-
ter ! 'He gave them their request; but sent leanness
into their soul.' So now immoderation in gain, plea-
sure, indulgence, takes out of a man his best strength,
brushes from his character its purest bloom, destroys
his spirituality and hope.
My brethren, it is of no use for me to sweepingly
condemn imaginative literature, sumptuousness in
dress, speculation in trade, a relish for pleasure-it
would be a mistake for me to do it; but surely I may
warn you against overweening desires. A critic says:
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GRAVES OF DESIRE.
'Moderation is the secret of successful art.' Mode-
ration is the secret of all life. Give the rein to
fancy, passion, appetite, ambition, and out of such
abandonment comes disenchantment, satiety, decre-
pitude, the grave. Our health, our happiness, our
character, our destiny, are bound up with self-restraint.
Live with circumspection, live slowly, live by line and
square, and you shall realize life at its best here, and
then the life everlasting.
III. There is illegal desire. Fixing our eye on
forbidden things and lusting after them. How beau-
tiful they seem, how desirable! and yet they eat as
doth a canker. They lead to a premature grave.
'The wicked do not live out half their days.' They
lead to a dishonoured grave. 'And so I saw the
wicked buried, . . . and they were forgotten in the
city where they had so done this is also vanity'
(Ecc. viii. 10). They lead to a hopeless grave. Such
awake to shame and everlasting contempt.
:
Do not hide it from yourselves for an hour, brethren,
that death is the price of touching forbidden things.
'The serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely
die.' What was the answer to that? A world full
of graves. The earth has become a vast catacomb,
and all graves may be justly named the graves of
desire. Ye shall not surely die.' That lie stands
exposed in the graves of millions. All illegal desire
means death-death physical, moral, everlasting. Are
you tempted by unlawful pleasure? see the skeleton
GRAVES OF DESIRE.
129
behind the flowers. By unlawful gain? see the field
of blood behind the pieces of silver. By unlawful
greatness? see the shroud wrapped up in the purple.
By unlawful indulgence? see that at the devil's
banquet the sexton is head waiter. Lust when it
hath conceived bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is
finished will have finished you. This is the dismal
eternal order; and no secrecy, no strength, no skill
on your part can disturb the programme or avert the
penalty. Oh! believe that the rational world is large
enough, rich enough, bright enough, to satisfy all your
desires; and put far from you the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
Wherein, then, dear brethren, lies our safety? In
reducing all desire to a minimum? Some of our scep-
tical writers counsel this, but it is not the philosophy
of Christianity. The infinity of desire is a grand
characteristic of our nature which it is no part of our
duty to destroy. It is the sign of our divinity, the
mainspring of civilization. Out of our daring imagin-
ation, our insatiable curiosity, our discontent of eye
and ear, out of this hunger of the heart, out of these
endless restless desires and aspirations, come all the
grand things of the world; and the last thing we
should aim to injure is the infinite striving of the
human spirit. Christianity leaves intact our bound-
less desire, whilst it teaches us moderation in all
worldly things.
It does this by fixing our attention on our inner life.
II.
9
130
GRAVES OF DESIRE.
7
It assures us that the deep, final satisfaction is not in
our senses, but in our spirit; that we find the full and
ultimate delight of life as our inner self grows in
truth and goodness and love. If we once truly believe
this we are henceforth saved from lusting after carnal
things; thinking of the higher life, the carnal life
falls into just subordination, proportion, perspective.
Brethren, if you wish to keep the world under your
feet you must be clothed with the sun; live to love
God, to perfect holiness in His fear, to serve His
Kingdom, to be fit to see His face, and then, without
hurting the great aspirations of your soul, all worldly
things will be duly chastened, regulated, sanctified.
You shall use the world as not abusing it.
It does this by fixing our hope on the heavenly life.
If the Israelites had thought more of Canaan before
them they would have cared less for the leeks and
onions, the taste of which they never got out of
their mouths. Brethren, he who believes in the great
life beyond, and lives for it, has henceforward a mea-
sured care, a chastened solicitude for all things of sense
and appetite. The pilgrim is not likely to be too
deeply engrossed about the tent curtains, tent pegs,
tent cords. Think much of that greater life, and you
shall not think overmuch about things which perish
in the using. Set your affections on things above, not
on things on the earth.' 'Let your moderation be
known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.' Keep
your life high and pure till He comes, and yours is
C
GRAVES OF DESIRE.
131
}
the fulness of joy and the pleasures for evermore.
'They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more;
neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne
shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living
fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes' (Rev. vii. 16, 17).
*
XII.
THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT.
'That they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all
things.'-TITUS ii. 10.
TWO points are to be observed in the consideration
of this passage :---
(
I. The grandeur of Christian doctrine. The doc-
trine of God.' Much is implied when the philosophy
of Plato is spoken of, the orations of Demosthenes,
the poetry of Shakespeare; but we are conscious that
something far grander is designed by the Apostle when
he speaks of the doctrine of God.' In the great
writers mentioned, truth concerning man and the
world finds noble expression, but the doctrine of
God' stands apart with a significance all its own.
If the Gospel of Christ be the doctrine of God it
ought to reflect the attributes of God. We venture
to say it does thus reflect its Author; the New Testa-
ment bears conspicuously the grand characteristics of
divinity.
C
Think of the vastness of the Gospel. We feel in it
the infinitude of God. We are redeemed before the
I
THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT.
133
"
foundation of the world; the redemption disclosed is
that of a race; it is worked out through the ages; it
issues are in the great eternity beyond. The Bible
has a mighty horizon, all our large thoughts and out-
looks are borrowed from it; and if it were taken away
how narrow our thinking would become! The word
of man is measured, sounded, with no great difficulty,
but the Gospel of Christ is an unfathomable deep
where all our thoughts are drowned. It is not the
teaching of man; it has about it the infinity, the
profundity, the immeasurability, of Him Who filleth
all in all. Think of the purity of the Gospel. There
is a strange purity in revelation. The Old Testament
stretches like a stainless sky above the wild, sensual,
corrupt nations of antiquity; the New Testament bears
the same relation to the life of modern nations. As
we look into the pure blue of the firmament far be-
yond our smoky atmosphere, so do we look up to the
righteousness revealed in Christ as the body of heaven
for clearness. We feel everywhere in this revelation
a moral perfection immeasurably beyond us; it is not
the goodness of man, we are never in danger of
thinking so; it is the holiness of One Who is light
and in Whom there is no darkness at all. Think of
the love of the Gospel. Very little indeed did the
old world know about love; the pity, sympathy,
charity of the Egyptian, Assyrian, Etrurian, Greek,
Roman, did not go far. And how much parochialism
and egotism there is still in humanity, purified and
134
THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT.
enlarged as it has been by the process of the suns!
The Gentile is ready to wrong the Jew; the American
is tempted to deny the Negro equal rights; the Aus-
tralian is strongly disposed to draw the line at the
Chinese; and notwithstanding all our boast of cos-
mopolitanism there are plenty of manifestations of
narrowness and intolerance amongst ourselves at home.
When you come to the limit of your parish the
macadamized path comes to an end, and the gas-lamps
utterly cease; but if you look up there is no parish
boundary to the stars-they go on shining deep beyond
deep until our whole planet is ensphered in a sky of
stars; so the charity of man at its largest soon finds
the parish boundary, but the charity of revelation is
the love of God, vast and magnificent as the stretching
heavens, comprehending men of all nations, languages,
tribes, peoples, tongues.
Think of the power of the Gospel. Candid men must
acknowledge that we feel in Revelation the energy of
suns, the force of winds, the sound of many seas.
There is a majestic moral power in the Gospel that
we do not find in the sublimest philosophies of men,
that is also painfully missing in the noblest sacred
literature of the heathen. Paul, speaking as in Rome,
the very ground sacred to power, could boast: 'I am
not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God
unto salvation to every one that believeth' (Rom. i. 16).
Think of the permanence of Revelation. Science says :
'Persistence is the sign of reality.' How divinely real,
THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT.
135
then, is the Gospel of God in Jesus Christ! It is the
only thing on the face of the earth that does persist.
Every now and then when a new heresy starts up there
is a panic, as if the authority of Revelation had come to
an end; but if you wait awhile it is the heresy and the
panic which come to an end. A gentleman told me
that he was walking in his garden one day when his
little child was by; suddenly the little one burst into
tears and cried out in terror, 'Oh! father, the house
is falling.' The child saw the clouds drifting over the
house, and mistook the movement of the clouds for
the movement of the house-the house was right
enough, it is standing now. So sometimes we think
that Revelation is falling and coming to nought, but
it is soon clear that the movement is elsewhere.
Nations, dynasties, philosophies, fashions, pass like
fleeting vapours and shadows, but the Gospel stands
like a rock. Ah! and will stand when rolling years
shall cease to move. All flesh is grass, and all the
glory of man as the flower of grass: the grass
withereth and the flower fadeth: but the word of the
Lord endureth for ever.
The Psalmist writes: Among the gods there is
none like unto Thee, O Lord; neither are there any
works like unto Thy works.' I see that some one has
invented a lightning for the use of theatres: it is made
out of lycopodeum; a very interesting lightning no
doubt, but no one will mistake it for the fire of the
thunder-cloud. A rainbow has been patented for the
(
136
THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT.
stage; but the patent thing will hardly be taken
for the majestic circle bended by the hands of the
Almighty. A few years ago a scientific man in the
far north created for purpose of experiment an arti-
ficial aurora borealis; that aurora never reached our
sky, but all see God's aurora shooting right across
the midnight heaven, the mystic shimmering splen-
dour filling the whole world with awe. No; no works
are to be compared with God's works: they have a
perfection, a vastness, a splendour all their own; it is
impossible to confound them with the artistry of men.
But may we not say also: 'Among the gods there
is none like unto Thee, O Lord; neither are there any
words like unto Thy words'? As certainly as no
human works can be compared with the glory of
Nature, so the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God
goes beyond all the speculations and philosophies and
poetries of men. The doctrine of God' has an autho-
rity, a power, a purity, a breadth and tenderness, not to
be denied, not to be misinterpreted. 'For My thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,
saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than
the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and
My thoughts than your thoughts' (Isa. lv. 8, 9).
Consider now the second point of our text,
(
6
II. The supreme demonstration of Christian doctrine
is found in Christian character. That they may adorn
the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.' The
Gospel is not a mere speculation, a superb philosophy,
THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT.
137
a grand ideal; it is intensely practical; it is to prove
itself the doctrine of God by making all who believe
in it like God. For the grace of God hath appeared,
bringing salvation to all men, instructing us, to the
intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we
should live soberly and righteously and godly in this
present world; looking for the blessed hope and ap-
pearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour
Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for us, that He might
redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself
a people for His own possession, zealous of good
works' (A.V. Titus ii. 11-14). The intrinsic excellence
of the doctrine is to stand revealed in the beauty of
character it creates. The end of the Gospel is the
sanctification and perfecting of our nature. The
Apostle here insists that the Cretans shall adorn the
doctrine, that they shall do it honour, that they shall
bring out in what they are, and in what they do, the
majesty, the strength, the loveliness of their creed.
(i) 'Adorn the doctrine.' That is, reveal, display,
make conspicuous and impressive the splendid con-
tents of your faith. The doctrine of God is in the
Testaments in suppressed magnificence, and the saints
are to give it expression, embodiment: they are to
flash out the unrevealed glory in their spirit and
language and conduct. The vastness, the depth, the
tenderness, the beauty of their creed is to be made
tangible. You bring a music sheet and tell me that
it is a composition by one of the greatest masters-
138
THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT.
Handel, Mozart, Beethoven. Now to the uninitiated.
is there a greater mystery than a sheet of music?
What strange meaningless characters-Arabic, Chinese,
are not more mysterious to the uninstructed eye. But
let the organist touch the white keys and bring out
of the painted pipes sweet melodies and grand har-
monies, and every listener, whether he understands
manuscript music or no, will understand the power
of that. The musician has adorned the score of the
composer. You show me the plan of a new cathedral,
the design of a famous architect whose masterpiece
this cathedral is supposed to be. How possible that
the multitude will find such drawings uninteresting,
and put them aside in disgust! Now let the builder
begin and carry out these despised sketches in marble,
cedar, mosaic, gold, scarlet,—and everybody acknow-
ledges the magnificence of the shrine. The builder
has adorned the plan of the architect. You show me
the instructions to a weaver for a pattern reputed to
be of singular excellence and beauty. How dim the
originality and imagination of the artist as expressed
in those bald arithmetical directions! But let the
workman develop this pattern in the loom, let him
with many-coloured threads pursue through infinite
intricacies the fine fancy of the artist, and in robes
fit for a bride or a conqueror shall all see the wealth
and glory of the invention so obscure before. The
weaver has adorned the design of the artist. Brethren,
we are to do just this with the doctrine of God-to
•
G
THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT.
139
{
make it articulate, visible, commanding in the actual
world of daily life. We must first bring our creed to
the senses of men that it may in due season touch
their spirit. The Bible is a vast oratorio, and the
saint is an organ-pipe to make audible the eternal
music; the spirit of God with consummate pencil
gives all the artistry of a living temple, but only as
the saints build in the silver and gold and precious
stones of noble living, does the glory of the heavenly
shrine stand revealed; prophet and apostle with
infinite painstaking set forth the nature and method
of righteousness, but it remains for the saints with
the many-coloured threads of changing events and
changing experiences to weave for their spirit raiment
of gold and fine needlework, garments of beauty and
glory, which shall charm and persuade all beholders.
Our creed must transfigure our life; our life must
demonstrate the divinity of our creed. As the stars
adorn astronomy, as the roses of June adorn botany,
as the rainbow adorns optics, so our conduct must
flash out the hidden virtue and glory of the doctrine
of God.
(ii) Adorn the doctrine "in all things." The saints
are to illustrate the doctrine of God in all its fulness-
to do it justice at all points. And so, dear brethren,
we have much to do. Every system of morality out-
side the Christian Church: Platonic, Aristotelian,
Stoic, Epicurean, Utilitarian, Positivist; every system
concerns itself with some pet virtue, or with some
angka
140
THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT.
special class of virtues; but Christianity is most
comprehensive-it concerns itself with whatever is
just, true, lovely, or of good report; everything vir-
tuous and praiseworthy is made an object of aspira-
tion. We must do justice to the doctrine of God
throughout our whole personality. At one end of our
complex nature are the grand faculties of intelligence,
conscience, will, imagination, linking us with the upper
universe; at the other end of our being are basal in-
stincts and affinities establishing a kinship between
us and the world below our feet. We must see to it
that our faith hallows our whole personality, that our
splendid faculties are sacred to their lofty uses, that
our inferior instincts are duly chastened, that we live
sanctified in body, soul, and spirit. Then in every
sphere of action and duty we must be mindful to
illustrate the doctrine of God. Some are called to
act in conspicuous places, they play a brilliant part,
sustain great responsibilities, exert immense influence;
they are rich, cultured, noble; and these are to exem-
plify the grace and power of the faith. The religion
of Christ is a religion for high places; the doctrine of
God is royal enough for Cæsar himself. Whilst
making greatness greater still, it yet keeps greatness
humble; it comports with splendour, keeping splendour
pure; it has the force to deal with dazzling tempta-
tions; it gives peace where peace was never known
before. All, then, who are called to fulfil influential
conditions of life must take their religion with them
THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT.
141
+
into kings' houses, and do justice to it in all points in
the high places of literature and fashion and govern-
ment and wealth.
But we are reminded by this Epistle that we are
to bring the faith to bear on the lowliest life; the
grandeur of our religion is to be seen in the wonderful
way in which it gives dignity and purity and sweet-
ness to common people and common things. Philo-
sophy is always up in a balloon far away in the central
blue, having lost sight of practical prosaic life; but
this is not so with the writers of the Epistles. The
Apostle Paul was a man of largest intellect, with a
genius for speculation, familiar with immensities, re-
surrections, immortalities; but he never for a moment
loses sight of the multitude and of the lowly life they
live; he never forgets that the highest truth has
an immediate bearing on the lowliest duty. Mark
the chapter from which our text is taken. The aged
men are to be patient, sober, grave.
The aged
women are not to be given to much wine, or to evil
speaking. The young women are to be discreet,
chaste, keepers at home, obedient to their own hus-
bands. Young men are to be sober-minded. Servants
must be obedient to their own masters, striving to
give satisfaction, respectful, faithful. 'Not purloin-
ing,' not putting a nice bit apart for themselves,
'that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour
in all things.' An art critic warmly insists that true
art will not be satisfied with creating a few splendid
142
THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT.
masterpieces to adorn palaces: it must go on to make
the wall-paper of cottages beautiful, to give the touch
of elegance to the cup and platter of the labouring
classes. Christianity found this out in a higher
sphere nearly two thousand years ago: it brought
eternal beauty into the street, making the slave noble,
and lending supernal grace to the homeliest tasks
and duties of what had hitherto been known as only
vulgar life. The grandeur of our doctrine must shine
through our character everywhere, must assert itself
in our action in things great and small. The ethics
of Christianity comprehend the whole grammar of
ornament. The faith of Christ is a salvation from
all sin, a salvation into all holiness. As everybody
knows, Shakespeare was a great lover of the old
English flowers, frequently making them to spring
forth in his poems with the freshness of Nature itself,
and so some years ago, when his admirers restored the
cottage in which the dramatist was born, they resolved
to plant in its grounds all the sweet things of summer
found on the bard's immortal page: rosemary, ox-lip,
wild thyme, pansies, peony, lily, love-in-idleness,
cuckoo-buds, lady-smocks, freckled cowslip, daisies
pied, eglantine, woodbine, nodding violets, musk-roses,
red roses-all were carefully planted out in the sun.
What a catalogue of virtues, my brethren, could we
compile from revelation! What a multitude of graces
are here, and fine differentiations of sublime qualities
and principles of moral life! Now all these we are
ļ
1
THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT.
143
T
to realize in actual life as season and opportunity may
permit, until the whole range of our character and
action is filled with beauty and fragrance as the
garden of the Lord.
Brethren, if we adorn the doctrine of God it will
adorn us.
How much have men and women in all
ages thought of personal adornment, how much they
have studied it, what sacrifices they have made to
secure it! Moralists a thousand times over have
satirized this passion for dress and ornament, and,
let us add, satirized it in vain. The doctrine of God
sets this passion of our nature in the true light, show-
ing as it does that the jewel of jewels is a meek and
quiet spirit, that the best robe is the ever-changing
yet everlasting beauty of practical holiness. The
Apostle is writing here to slaves who had little oppor-
tunity for personal display. Their masters wore
magnificent decorations, their mistresses were radiant
with robes woven in famous looms and dipped in
Tyrian dyes; it was the age of gems, purple, cos-
metics; Crete was a very metropolis of luxury and
fashion; but in all this sumptuousness of life, these
humble men and women to whom this letter was
written had no share whatever. The Apostle however
fixes the eye of his readers on the genuine glory of
life. The true adorning is not material but moral.
Paul in few words taught the whole philosophy of
clothes long before Carlyle taught it in many.
Brethren, adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in
144
THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT.
all things, and you shall be very independent of soft
clothing and rich ornament. The Scotch tell us 'a
bonny bride is soon dressed,' and a genuine Christian
has a charm of spirit and life which is far more than
the dove's wing covered with silver, than the feathers
dipped in yellow gold.
In adorning the doctrine of God in all things we
render that doctrine the most valuable service any
may render it. The national character of the Cretans
was low in the extreme, and it was the grandest
service to the Church of God that these Christian
slaves should display in palaces, fields, ships, market
places, a new type of character compounded of a
strange strength and sweetness. The character of
Christians is the grand argument for Christianity.
The world is not persuaded by logic, by learning, by
literature, but by life; the multitude believes in what
it can see in the eloquence of conduct, the logic of
facts, the feeling and power of deeds. We may see
this very clearly illustrated in another direction.
Why do we all believe in astronomy? Why have
we such a positive faith in a science which professes
to give the true account of the distant mysterious
firmament; which assumes to weigh suns, to analyze
stars, to calculate the movements of endless orbs
and comets? Do we believe in all this because we
have read Sir Isaac Newton, mastered his reasonings,
verified his calculations and conclusions ? Not for
a moment. The faith of the million rests on what
}
THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT.
145
it can see. Our common faith in astronomy is derived
not immediately from Newton's Principia, but indi-
rectly through the penny almanac. At the beginning
of the year we learn that an eclipse of the sun or
moon is predicted, and on the palpable fulfilment of
that prediction rests the firmest faith of modern times—
faith in astronomy. On the day or night of an eclipse
myriads of people look into the sky who never look
into it at any other time, and the exact fulfilment
of the prediction brings conviction to their mind
touching all the large assumptions of celestial science.
People believe in what they see; the popular faith
is based entirely on the darkened orb. So the faith
of men generally in Christianity does not rest on
theology, criticism, logic, but on Christianity as it
finds expression in the spirit and life of its disciples.
Once more men believe in what they see, only this
time they are not called to look upon a darkened
orb, but on a Church bright as the sun shedding on
men and nations moral splendours like the light of
seven days. Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works, and glorify your
Father which is in heaven' (Matt. v. 16).
6
All this is possible in the strength which God shall
command upon us if we only look to Him. Walk
before Me and be thou perfect' (Gen. xvii. 1).
Here Abram was directed to walk perfectly before
God, but it is clearly taught that he would be able to
do this only in the Divine Almightiness. 'Let the
II.
10
146
THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT.
words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart,
be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my Strength,
and my Redeemer' (Psalm xix. 14, 15).
'My
Strength and my Redeemer.' Here is the secret of
living pure in heart and faultless in word. So once
more in our text: we are commanded to adorn the
doctrine of God in all things.' Well might we faint
at such an exaction only for the sweet inspiring words,
"God our Saviour." The task otherwise utterly
impossible for ever is possible in Him Whose strength
is made perfect in our weakness. We are His work-
manship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.
Let us seek God continually and His strength.
-
XIII.
DISREGARDED SIGNALS.
'This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve
their sayings.'-PSALM xlix. 13.
THE question is sometimes discussed as to whether
it were better to have lived in the first ages of
the world, or in these later times. For some reasons,
perhaps, it would have been better to have lived in
the earlier ages, but we who live in the ends of the
world have opportunity to profit by the experience
of those who have gone before us. They tried a
variety of experiments, and we may be guided by the
results which often cost them so much. To this very
matter the text refers, pointing out that whilst the
way of worldliness and disobedience is confessed folly,
yet one generation after another disregards the solemn
lessons taught by its predecessor; in spite of the warn-
ing it follows in the same steps, shares the same
doom. First then,
I. Let us note and illustrate the fact affirmed by
our text. Mr. Romanes, who has specially studied the
minds of animals, says that we may infer intelligence
in an animal whenever we see it able to profit by its
148
DISREGARDED SIGNALS.
•
own experience. But is it not the sign of a higher
intelligence, the sign of human intelligence, that we
are able to profit by the experience of others? And
in many directions indeed we are manifestly anxious
to acquaint ourselves with the actions of our prede-
cessors and with the consequences of their conduct, so
that we may adopt what proved advantageous to them
and reject whatever injured or destroyed them. This
is the reason why history is written with so much
elaboration, and studied with so much solicitude. Just
as when a ship is lost, if it be possible some signal
is placed on the fatal spot to apprize other vessels of
the danger and to direct them into safe channels, so
the merchant, the general, the statesman, consult the
signals held forth by history that they may not make
shipwreck of fortune, fame, or greatness.
And yet our text accusing men of disregarding the
lessons of history is painfully true. The world has
two histories, a political and a moral one, and whilst
as a general rule men are anxious to profit by the
experience of their ancestors on questions touching
social or material interests, they are not nearly so
scrupulous to profit by the moral page of history. The
moral history is as full and explicit as the secular
record. 'Now all these things happened unto them
for ensamples: and they are written for our admoni-
tion upon whom the ends of the world are come'
(1 Cor. x. 11). But, as I say, men on a wide scale
disregard this history, and refuse the solemn lessons.
DISREGARDED SIGNALS.
149
pointed by their immediate predecessors or actual
contemporaries-they fail to benefit by the experience
which was paid for at such a terrible price. A
murderer is executed, but many of those who have
witnessed the execution go away to cherish the same
passions, to practise the same bad habits, some of
them to share the same miserable doom. A gambler
ruined by his losses puts an end to his life, but the
next racecourse is as crowded as ever with an infatu-
ated throng. A drunkard is carried to an untimely
grave, but the mourners are in their cups ere the
ceremony is fairly over. A worldling who has lived
through many years raking money together dies at
last bemoaning the folly of gaining the world and
losing the soul, but men on every side remain just as
mad in the course of materialism and worldliness.
The fact is, men follow one another in sin as they do
in nothing else—splitting on the rock on which others
split, sinking into the pit which swallows alive whole
armies. Baxter tells how he once saw a man driving a
flock of lambs, and something meeting and hindering
them, one of the lambs leaped on the wall of a bridge
and fell over into the river; whereupon the rest of the
flock one by one leaped after it and were nearly all
drowned. Thus we men often act blindly, madly.
Smitten by a profound infatuation, we wildly follow
one another leaping into the gulf; like sheep we are
laid in the grave.
II. We enquire into the reasons of this strange
150
DISREGARDED SIGNALS.
1
conduct. How is it men allow themselves in courses
which have manifestly proved fatal to their prede-
cessors? How is it that we go on generation after
generation perpetrating the same errors and creating
for ourselves the same tragedies? The fact is, we
blind ourselves by miserable sophistries, and in the
end cheat ourselves out of all the profit that we ought
to derive from the experiences of those whose foot-
prints are left in the sand.
(i) Men blind themselves to the lessons of history
by persuading themselves that variations of time
and circumstance will prevent in their case the
disastrous consequences which happened to others.
We say to ourselves, 'It is quite true that the par-
ticular course of conduct on which I am intent has
proved fatal to many; but then circumstances alter
cases-my position is unique, the issue must be alto-
gether different to the results so much to be deplored
in others.' The preacher talks about the great warn-
ings found in the Bible; but his hearers too often
defraud themselves by thinking these scriptural in-
stances ancient and obsolete; whilst the preacher
admonishes and pleads the hearers are insisting that
the conditions are not the same, the places of action
are wide apart, the ancient world was one matter and
the modern world is another. Or, you set forth to
men on the verge of temptation some warning instances
from scenes more familiar, from a period more recent;
they evade the admonition by the same sophistry, and
DISREGARDED SIGNALS.
151
by a perverse ingenuity discover that the complexion
of the two cases is quite different. It is well known
that people may indulge in certain physical habits
in one climate with considerable impunity, but if they
attempt the same indulgence in another climate it
proves immediately ruinous; what is comparatively
safe in Europe would directly and ruthlessly destroy
in India. We persuade ourselves it is somewhat after
this fashion in morals: if we only get into a certain
range of time and place and circumstances, particular
courses of evil action will prove innocuous although
they destroy elsewhere. No error, my brethren, could
be greater than this, none more disastrous. What
are circumstances to us? Absolutely nothing in
comparison to the principle involved in the act, and
whatever may be the surface variations the underlying
principle will not fail to assert itself; and lust, pride,
greed, vanity, materialism, ambition, thoughtlessness,
will produce the fruit of misery and shame and ruin in
any body, in any age, and in any place.
Brethren, when the devil, the prince of sophists,
would seek to confuse your judgment by appealing
to the accidents of life, be sure you remember the
universality and invariability of the great moral
principles, and that these principles never fail to
vindicate themselves; be sure that no novelty of
surroundings can shelter you from the sad conse-
quences of ungodliness and unrighteousness. Years
ago a distinguished chemist perished in Paris under
152
DISREGARDED SIGNALS.
peculiar circumstances. He was devoted to the study
of poisons, and one day pursuing his experiments with
the dangerous elements, fell a victim to his enthu-
siasm; his corpse was found in the laboratory, and
by his side was a bit of paper on which he had hastily
written with stiffening fingers: Such a substance is
poison, and the proof of it is that I am dying!' That
experiment was conclusive, it will never need to be re-
peated. The dead chemist is sufficient warning to all
men everywhere to let that poison alone. Brethren,
you have the testimony of hundreds, of thousands, of
tens of thousands, that in a life of greed, of pleasure,
of vanity, they tasted the bitterness of the second
death. Let it suffice. Do not suppose you shall
drink the poison which has destroyed multitudes and
find it harmless because you drink it out of a cup of
another pattern. You know a great deal better than
that with material poisons; be sure the rule holds good
with the vials which poison the spirit. Poison is
poison, no matter out of what cup you may drink it,
and sin is death to any man, in any place, in any age.
(ii) Men blind themselves to the lessons of history
by presuming on their cleverness. It is manifest that
specific sinful courses have proved the ruin of myriads,
but we to-day meditating the same courses expect
to come safely through by virtue of our acuteness.
We form the fatal fancy that men perish not because
they are wicked, but because they are weak; not
because they are sinners, but because they are simple-
DISREGARDED SIGNALS.
153
tons. One says to himself: 'I know that gambling
ruins men every day, but all my ventures shall be
discreet; I know a thing or two, I do not lose my
head, I am cool and politic, a man of the world not
easily taken in.' Another says: "I am going to take
care of myself, and I shall not be very particular at
whose expense I feather my nest; but I am no fool,
and my guilty gains shall defy detection.' A third
says I go in for enjoying myself. No Puritan shall
rob me of my cakes and ale, but I know well where
to draw the line, and I will come out after a life of
liberty and enjoyment without having compromised
either my health or reputation.' Thus men determine
with more or less clearness and deliberation on a course
of sin, trusting to their exceptional experience and
astuteness to save them from the natural consequence
of such habits of life. This assumption of cleverness
peoples hell. In vain do you point such infatuated
ones to the gulf below sown with premature graves,
blasted reputations, ruined souls; they will persist
in walking on the edge of the precipice, having such
a quick eye, such a cool head, such a steady step.
In vain do you point them to the rocks on which so
many have lost everything for time and eternity; they
refuse to adopt another course, to take in any sail;
they are such exquisite pilots that despite all rocks
and shipwrecks of simpletons they will come in safety
to the golden shores. This their way is their clever-
ness; this their way is their folly.
154
DISREGARDED SIGNALS.
WON
Brethren, let us not boast our cleverness; sin is
another name for folly, folly is another name for sin.
We are less wise than the fowls of the air, less wise
than the beasts which perish. In some parts of the
Tyrol where the shooting has been very severe, the
birds of passage are said to deflect from their usual
line of flight so that they may avoid the dangerous
districts; but we persist in crossing dangerous places
although we know countless numbers have fallen.
victims to the fowler, and this we do from one genera-
tion to another. Darwin tells us that animals learn
from experience, imitating each other's caution, and
no animal can be caught long in the same kind of
trap. But man is far less cautious. The devil keeps
on using a few old traps smelling of the blood of
ruined generations, and he has little need either to
hide his traps or to change them; the same old
baits-thirty pieces of silver, a wedge of gold, a rag
of purple, a pretty face, a bottle, are abundantly and
sorrowfully successful one age after another. If there
is any acuteness about us, let us show it by letting evil
things alone. Do not sup with the devil, no matter
what may be the length of your spoon, the depth of
your cunning, the energy of your defence; if you eat
of his supper be sure when the unclean carnival is
over you will find you have got only the bones, the
cayenne pepper, and the bill. A man is a fool the
moment he departs from the line of severe righteous-
ness, equity, pureness. If you are wise, be timid;
DISREGARDED SIGNALS.
155
you are safe in your sincerity; in sophistry and
stratagem you are lost.
(iii) Men blind themselves to the lessons of history
by presuming on their strength. We conclude that
those who fell, fell because they were weak, and we
fondly give ourselves credit for decision and strength.
'I know where to draw the line, where to pull up,
where to put my foot down; they will id no weak-
ness in me.' Thus we perplex, deceive, and destroy
ourselves. Dear brethren, we may feel strong to-day.
In the power of innocence and the preventive grace of
God we may really be strong; but the moment we
surrender ourselves to iniquity our strength begins to
evaporate, and soon we are weakness itself. Men
forget that once committed to a downward course they
soon acquire a momentum not to be broken, not to be
controlled. Dallying with gay society, with scepticism,
with guilty pleasure, with sordid life, we are soon
carried beyond all our calculations. Some time ago the
papers told us about a Californian stage-driver who
was dying, and who in his delirium kept on exclaim-
ing: 'I am on the down-grade, and I can't reach the
brake.' Many a soul to-day is swinging down the
dizzy steep and cannot stop. Men in confusion and
horror are saying to themselves, 'I am going too far,
I ought to stop, I ought to have stopped some time
ago;' but they can't reach the brake, they cannot get
the will-power into play, and so they dash on faster
and faster until they too topple over the brink and
156
DISREGARDED SIGNALS.
add another contribution to the mighty sum of the
world's disasters. When a man begins to meddle.
with things of greed, and appetite, and passion, and
vanity, he is no longer the man that he was-his
vision is impaired, his imperial faculties are dethroned,
he is carried away as with a flood. Brethren, to know
where to stop in an evil course is to stop before you
begin it.
A drop too much of the cup of evil is the
first drop.
Let us not presume on circumstances. Strange
things indeed occur in the material world: men are
born who can drink deadly poisons with impunity;
there are men whom serpents will not bite, whom fire
will not burn. Nature has some strange caprices; she
indulges in eccentricities which glaringly violate all
that concerns the established order. But such rare
violations of the law of the world are not repeated
once in the realm of morals. God hath fashioned our
hearts alike, and no extraordinary conjunction of cir-
cumstances can save us from the doom that hath
overtaken the multitude of transgressors. Let us not
presume on cleverness. The big blunder is always
made by the clever. Be confident that the kingdom
of evil has existed far too long, and attained a far too
subtle perfection to be nonplussed by any diplomacy
of ours. Let us not presume on strength. The
strongest castle in which treason lurks has no found-
ation, it is already lost; and the thought of sin is
treason, paralyzing the conscience, sapping the will.
DISREGARDED SIGNALS.
157
Amongst those who have gone down to ruin were men
favoured more than we are, wiser than we are, stronger
than we are. May God save us all from presumptuous
sin, which in our case is any sin at all.
If God had pointed us to one clear consequence of
transgression it ought to have been enough for us, but
we have before our eyes a thousand solemn admonitions.
History teems with warnings. And you need not
go to remote days for awakening convincing examples.
Dante in his vision of hell tells how he saw sepulchres
there in which living creatures were entombed, who
'Make themselves audible by doleful sighs.'
In all our cemeteries are rich men, gay men, indul-
gent men, selfish, sordid, sensual men, who being dead
yet speak, and who from their graves beseech us to
shun those vices by which they were dishonoured and
destroyed. Let us not be blind, deaf, defiant. This
time to put the glass to our blind eye has no suspicion
in it, of courage, has no presage of victory: it means, it
means only, cowardice and crushing, eternal defeat.
Really, brethren, in the name of all that is sacred,
what do we want with things of error, of license, of
transgression? Is not the rational universe big enough
for us, is it not rich enough? When the prodigal son
came to himself, he said, 'In my father's house is
bread enough and to spare.' Why did he not know
that before? There were bread, rich dainties, music,
dancing, and everything else that was glorious and
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DISREGARDED SIGNALS.
gracious in the father's house, but the foolish fellow
left it for swine and swill. Brethren, our Father's
house is big enough, there is bread enough, things of
knowledge, beauty, music, friendship, liberty, blessing,
hope there is bread enough and to spare. Stay in
your Father's house then, you need go outside it for
nothing; rejoice in the Father's love, use His gifts
as not abusing them, and you shall be satisfied as
with the finest of the wheat, and with honey out of
the rock.
"This their way is their folly, yet their posterity
follow in their steps.' Yes, there is a great procession
whose feet take hold of the path that leads to hell.
Oh! do not join them. Be ye followers of them
who through faith and patience inherit the promises.'
Join the noble procession that moves upward, and
with them shine as the stars for ever and ever.
،
เ
XIV.
THE WEAK PLACE.*
'How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou
doest all these things.'-EZEK. xvi. 30.
PHYSIOLOGICALLY the heart is the centre of
unconscious involuntary action, but morally, ac-
cording to the Scriptural representation, the heart is
the centre of conscious voluntary action. When the
sacred writer speaks of the heart he means the will,
the inward man, the affections, the spiritual real self
which is intended to rule in the world of circumstance,
and to be perfected through the world of circumstance.
In the text the prophet declares of Israel that it is
feeble in soul, destitute of moral force; that it has little
conviction, faith, earnestness; and this is evidenced by
its compromise, its idolatries, its wickednesses. Three
great errors of the day will stand corrected if due
attention be paid to our text.
I. That a man's life may be irregular, and yet, the
man's heart be good. How common it is to believe
that men are good at heart, even when they are sadly
* This and the following address were delivered in Manchester.
160
THE WEAK PLACE.
defective in conduct! It has been boldly claimed for
some great historical and literary characters whose lives
were most immoral that still their hearts were noble;
that really they were men of pure faith, fine feeling,
high principle; conventionally they were wrong, but
intrinsically they were sound. There is, in our day, a
philosophical antinomianism as well as a theological
antinomianism which affirms the purity, the tender-
ness, the magnanimity, of the soul although the prac-
tical life is altogether despicable. You are to look at
the brilliant soldiership of these men, at their superb
art, their immortal philosophies and poetry, their
magnificent inventions and discoveries, and whatever
may be the errors of their conduct, the faults of their
character, you are still to believe that they are good
at heart. Just as the brilliant birds of paradise feed
voraciously on cockroaches; just as the gorgeous
humming-birds among tropic flowers are hunting after
spiders; just as the transfigured butterfly turns aside
from the gardens of roses to sip filth by the wayside;
just as the eagle has its eye on the sun and its heart
on carrion; so many of our brilliant men and women
have had vile tastes and lived licentious lives. But
we are still to believe that they were good at heart.
Brethren, we refuse to believe anything of the kind.
Our æsthetic sense is shocked by the vile tastes of the
beautiful birds and butterflies, and we think no more of
their disagreeable appetites,-they are as mere things
and there is an end to it; but in the moral faults of
THE WEAK PLACE.
161
gifted men and women we can see nothing but the
weakness, the selfishness, the perverseness, the de-
pravity of the soul-a central, profound defect of vital
consequence. And in respect to ordinary people it is
the same. We often say of our neighbour whose con-
duct is notoriously wanting: 'He is not as bad as he
seems.' Now, that may be true, but it may be pro-
foundly false, and it often is-the man is no better
than he seems, he is not improbably a good deal
more repulsive within than he is without. It is a
dangerous error to give men of bad conduct credit for
a noble heart—their heart is really weak, perfidious,
rotten.
Take a few examples. Here is a man who has
little or no sense of practical honesty. He thinks
the very least of getting into debt without the slightest
probability of ever being able to discharge his liabili-
ties. He lives in a superior house, lives in luxury,
his family dress well, they give entertainments, they
go to the seaside; as we say, they stick at nothing.
But they never trouble about paying anybody; they
will fail and begin over again that they may do the
same trick. Now, people will say of such a one, 'Yes,
he is sadly wanting in prudence, in discretion, in
management; but really he is as generous, good-hearted
a fellow as ever lived.' But in fact he is nothing of the
sort. Content to feed on the fruits of others' industry,
he is essentially false and cruel. Depend upon it those
to whom he owes money will not apologize for him;
II
11
162
THE WEAK PLACE.
3
they will declare that he is a fraud, a lie, a base thief
and robber; and they are right. Another of these
good-hearted fellows is the man who won't work. He
is merry, humorous, brilliant, companionable, capital
with a glass and a pipe; but he won't work. People
say of him, 'What a pity! He has a fine disposition,
he ought to have been born a gentleman.' The fact
is, he has made a blackguard of himself, whatever he
was born; he has not a fine disposition, but a base
disposition; he lacks all that independence, self-
reliance, courage, which are the very essence of noble
character. Another of these deceivers is the specious
fellow, wanting in social purity and honour. People
will speak regretfully of the escapades, the gallantries,
the scandals, of what are termed the gay Lotharios;
but these scoundrels are chided as if their infideli-
ties and libertinism were simply on the surface, and,
despite their licence, they are reckoned as honest, kind
men of the world. Not so. Such men are profoundly
selfish, cowardly, bloodguilty. Or take many intem-
perate men. People say: 'Fine fellow! only his own
enemy.' But that will not do. Breaking the heart
of his friends, killing his wife, reducing his family to
shame and wretchedness, he is altogether destitute of
the qualities of honourable men. His companions
may sing until they are hoarse, 'For he's a jolly
good fellow;' he remains a jolly bad fellow, and jollity
aggravates badness. It must not be allowed that he
that doeth unrighteousness is righteous. It is quite
1
*
1
1
THE WEAK PLACE.
་
163
true that a man may be living conventionally right,
and yet be bad at heart; but the converse is not
therefore true—that a man might be living discredit-
ably, and yet be good at heart. He that doeth sin is
of the devil. Evil conduct may assume the aspect of
innocence, gaiety, greatness, but analyze it and it shall
be seen to be mean, base, low, cowardly, ignoble.
How weak, corrupt, vile is thine heart, seeing thou
doest all these things!
II. That a man's life may be irregular, and yet the
man's heart be strong. This is the second error to
be corrected by our text. We think of sinful men
as being men of strong character, and we sometimes
think that the putting on of goodness is the putting
off of strength. We see in culture generally that
whilst something is gained in beauty, something seems
to be lost in rough strength. The rose under the
hand of the gardener gains in fulness of beauty, but
it loses the vigour that it had when a dog-rose in the
hedge. The genius sent to college gains in refine-
ment and resource, but he seems to lose something of
the rough strength of the untutored intellect. And
we are tempted sometimes to believe that the man
who realizes high Christian character does so at the
sacrifice of strength-that he becomes pure through
the loss of vehemence, fulness, force, and fire of
character. But when we are inclined to such thoughts,
we are simply misled by plausible appearances.
There is really weakness in all sin, most pitiful
Bes
164
THE WEAK PLACE.
weakness, no matter how cunningly it may simulate
strength. Take a passionate man. He feels strong,
he looks strong, his language is strong; but in truth
he is weakness itself. No matter how in his wrath
he affects the god, he is the mere sport of the wind.
The very word 'passion' signifies the passivity of the
man-not that he is the actor, but that he is being
acted upon. The calm, patient man is the strong man.
Vesuvius makes a great deal more noise than does the
dew of the morning, but the dew is far mightier never-
theless. Take the ambitious man. He seems strong-
natured, strong-willed, but real strength is wanting.
A man like Napoleon seems a very incarnation of
strength, but the fretfulness displayed by him on the
rock of exile betrayed his essential weakness. Take a
discontented man. People are ready to think that the
complainings of such are signs of a large powerful
genius which frets at narrow conditions; but it is not
so. Emerson says: Discontent is the infirmity of
the will.' And this view is fully borne out by Paul:
'I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith
to be content. . . . I can do all things through Christ
which strengtheneth me.' Contentment is a question
of strength. Take a selfish man. He is restless, dar-
ing, aggressive, assertive, grasping, and may easily be
accounted a man of superior force; but one of the
greatest preachers of our age has just shown us that
the mightiest of all energies is the energy of unselfish-
pess. Take a man of great animal appetites and
THE WEAK PLACE.
165
!
:
indulgences. He thinks himself a bold, strong man,
and many are disposed to think this type manly; but
that is not the view of the prophet: How effeminate
is thine heart, seeing thou doest all these things.'
Carlyle says truly: 'Crabbedness, pride, obstinacy,
affectation are at bottom want of strength.'
•
All vices are at bottom want of strength. So far
from exhibiting an excess of will-power, they are signs
of central defect; so far from being the result of ful-
ness of spirit, they result from failure of spirit. How
weak is thine heart.' How lacking in true force to be
thus the victim of ignoble passion! The man's body
may be strong,-Samson's was ; but, landed in the lap
of Delilah, how weak was the giant! The man's head
may be strong,-Solomon's was: large knowledge, fine
judgment, eloquent tongue; but, seduced and betrayed
by idolatrous women, how pitifully effeminate! Weak
heart, worst weakness of all,-weak exactly where lies
the strength of true manhood. 'I have written unto
you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word
of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the
wicked one.' The revelation of divinest strength lies
in overcoming wickedness, and he who is overcome by
wickedness is in soul dyspeptic, paralyzed, crippled,
impotent.
III. That a man's life may be irregular, and yet the
man's heart be neutral. The third error corrected by
the text. Without saying, perhaps, that a man who
leads a bad life has a noble heart, or a strong one,
166
THE WEAK PLACE.
many are prepared to-day to say that the man's heart
has nothing to do with his conduct whatever. The
fault is not in the thoughts, affections, will, at all.
The source of man's conduct is boldly affirmed to be
his organization; the man has an inborn character
from which he cannot escape, his general constitution
determines his personal conduct. And the circum-
stances of the man completes the ring of necessity in
which he moves. Thus it is declared that the universe
of necessity coerces us from within and without, and
that we cannot reasonably accuse the sinner in his
inmost self. We are waifs and strays upon the ocean
of life, driven hither and thither by currents over
which we have no control and whose existence for the
most part we do not even suspect, by winds we know
not whence they come or whither they go. No man
by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature. No
man by taking thought can make himself wise or
witty or virtuous-he may do a little, but the main
lines alike of his physique and moral character are
determined for him. Now, in opposition to this
philosophy of necessity so popular in our day, the text
declares the heart to be originative, the prime source of
mischief. The conduct of Israel in entering into
alliances with Egypt and Babylon and Nineveh is not
condoned on the ground of Israel occupying a peculiar
geographical situation, which rendered such alliances
politic and necessary in the view of worldly wisdom;
nothing is said of the peculiar geographical position,
THE WEAK PLACE.
167
but the conduct of Israel is referred at once to their
lack of true faith, of noble will, of inward loyalty to
their covenant-keeping God. So to-day God does not
excuse our bad conduct on the grounds of the nature
we inherit, or the events which influence us, but He
attributes to the individual a full, solemn responsibility.
It is false; we are not waifs and strays, the sport of
winds and currents: we are ocean-steamers throbbing
with a mysterious independent energy; we can set
winds and waves at defiance, we know in which direc-
tion lies our path, we can turn the helm whithersoever
we list, and if we make shipwreck we are not blame-
less, as an empty bottle driven on this shore or that,
but we are found guilty and condemned by God and
man as men at the wheel are found disobedient, as
captains are found asleep, as pilots are found drunk
or presumptuous. Not, how unfortunate thy circum-
stances or thy organization, but "how weak is thine
heart, seeing thou doest all these things!
And this neutrality of the heart is often in these
days assumed by social reformers. Very often when
men are writing of social evils they say: 'There must
be something wrong with the system which makes
the few rich and leaves the many toilers or paupers.'
We reply, not necessarily anything wrong with the
system at all. The political and social system may
be as sound and perfect as the moral character of the
population will permit the idleness, the thriftlessness,
the drunkenness of a certain section of the people is
رو
168
THE WEAK PLACE.
the true explanation of social miseries. 'How weak
is thine heart.' Here is the grand source of the
massive misery of the world; not in unfortunate situ-
ations, not in unscientific systems, not in erring
political programmes; but in the weakness of the
individual preferring the lower life to that higher life
which is open to him do you find the final reason for
the poverty, the shame, the misery of millions.
The great need then is the renewal of the human
heart. How withered is thine heart, like a flower or
tree that has lost sap and vitality, all its leaves fading,
its blossoms shedding, its fruits drying up! 'My
moisture is turned into the drought of summer.'
Society needs regeneration before it will permit any
considerable reconstruction. Seek in the Church to
strengthen the conscience, to purify the life-that is
our first grand work. And as to the individual, the
defects of our life must be cured in the defects of our
spirit. The Bible speaks of a big heart-an enlarged
heart, swelling with love and joy. It speaks of a
wise heart, full of the higher wisdom. It speaks of
a tender heart, full of pity and sympathy and grace.
It speaks of an upright heart, full of integrity. It
speaks of a liberal heart, full of unselfishness and
diffusiveness. It speaks of a merry heart, full of
gladness and music. It speaks of a pure heart, full
of the spirit and vision and strength of holiness. It
speaks of a sound, true, whole, perfect heart, one
altogether loyal to God, and beating time to His law
J
THE WEAK 169
*
PLACE.
and love with every throb. My brethren, this is what
we want; first of all, most of all, we want this, the
inner kingdom-
'A heart in every thought renewed,
And full of love divine:
Perfect and right and pure and good-
A copy, Lord, of Thine.'
XV.
THE PRESENT BLESSING.
#
'And He blessed him there."-GEN. xxxii. 29.
WE
E cannot read this narrative without feeling how
profound it is, how deep and rich its meaning.
Here we see a man burdened by the trouble that comes
out of sin turning aside to unbosom himself to God.
All night long the penitent lays hold of the Divine
strength and love, pleading for forgiveness and peace ;
and he does not plead in vain. And He blessed him
there.' There was no doubt about the nature of that
blessing. The change of name was significant of the
change that had taken place in the patriarch's deepest
nature. He who had been false, mean, weak, ignoble,
became a prince of God, strong, true, royal! It was
the greatest of all changes, and the most glorious.
The breaking of the day was significant of the fact
that a heavenly light and glory had broken on Jacob's
path, that a sun had risen upon him which should no
more go down.
But the point I wish specially to note this morning
is the great truth suggested by our text-that is, the
THE PRESENT BLESSING.
171
possibility for every one of us of a present salvation
no matter how deeply discouraging may be our circum-
stances. It is a common temptation to men to think
that if their circumstances were different they could
become religious, put forth all its fruits, enjoy all its
blessings, but with things as they are they can hope
for little. By this miserable temptation thousands are
deluded, life is wasted, souls are lost. What I wish
to show is that the realisation of salvation and the
maintenance of a holy life are possible to us anywhere,
everywhere, if we have the true disposition of heart.
Goodness is never a question of the outer world, it is
always a question of the inner world; it is not a ques-
tion of favourable or unfavourable circumstances, but
of choice, desire, seeking, striving. If there is the
inner readiness and determination, the highest goodness
is possible wherever we may stand. Now, in nature
climate determines everything respecting the animals
which live, the flowers which grow; the character of
the climate, not the nature of the soil, or the con-
formation of the ground. It is from difference of
climate that tropical life differs so much from arctic,
and both these from the life of temperate regions. It
is climate, and climate alone, that causes the orange
and vine to blossom, and the olive to flourish in the
south, but denies them to the north of Europe. It is
climate, and climate alone, that enables the forest tree
to grow on the plain, but not on the mountain top;
that causes wheat and barley to flourish on the main-
}
172
THE PRESENT BLESSING.
land of Scotland, but not on the steppes of Siberia.
Not the quality of the ground, or the form of the
ground, but the climate; the products of the landscape
are determined not by the soil itself, or by what is
below the soil, but by what is outside it, above it, beyond
it. But, brethren, human character is not governed by
circumstance as the landscape is determined by climate.
The supreme distinction of man, the characteristic that
marks him out from the mere physical universe, is,
that there is in him a self-energy, an inner freedom, a
fundamental liberty and strength of soul, by which he
triumphs over the unfriendliest conditions in pursuit
of his ideal. By virtue of an inborn power man bursts
the tyranny of circumstance, as the athlete by his
swelling muscle bursts the iron band on his arm.
We see this illustrated in the lives of intellectual
men, in the way in which they mastered eminently un-
favourable conditions. How Demosthenes, in spite
of his stammering, became an orator; how Huber, in
his love of science, triumphed over blindness; how
Beethoven created splendid music despite his deafness!
And so we constantly see men achieve wealth, and
learning, and greatness in defiance of poverty, illness,
illiteracy, persecution. And we always delight to
witness this inborn intellectual force asserting itself
against circumstances, laughing at fate, and reaching
the crown which fortune seemed to have absolutely
denied. We smile at or turn away with contempt
from the dead fish which swim with the stream, but
THE PRESENT BLESSING.
173
clap our hands in rapture when we see men of power
breast the current, as leviathan does when he makes
the great deep to boil like a pot, to shine like fire.
It is the same in the moral life of man; victory
is from within, no matter what may be the state of
things without. The patriarch struggling with the
angel until he overcame is the picture of man's ability
to overcome all difficulties in the way of the highest
life, to realize purity and peace and uttermost salva-
tion. And so we constantly see men getting goodness
and exemplifying goodness in circumstances which
seem altogether to forbid moral excellence. Climate
triumphs in the landscape, determining all its growths
and forms, but character triumphs over climate, over
what is outside, marvellously. In the world about us
we see lilies of moral purity springing in foulest
gutters; loveliest graces like summer roses blooming
through cruel frosts of trial; flowers of patience and
meekness and hope springing in dark depths of
temptation and sorrow into which no beam of sunshine
penetrates; the orange, the grape, the pomegranate
of spiritual fruitfulness ripening in regions of bar-
renest wilderness. In the world of character climate
counts for little or nothing-we find spice forests on
Alpine tops, reap golden sheaves on burning sands,
birds of paradise startle us mid icy mountains, we are
surprised by gorgeous pansies, dahlias, tiger-lilies,
sunflowers, hyacinths, and heliotropes of moral per-
fection and beauty in the dreariest regions of sickness,
i
174
THE PRESENT BLESSING.
poverty, and sorrow. Here climate is nothing-the
quality of the soil, the election of the heart, the forces
within, determine all, and we find the richest graces,
the noblest acts, the finest characters in quarters
altogether unpromising.
My brethren, we see here how mistaken men are in
fancying that they cannot give themselves to God, and
live for Him just where they find themselves. And
yet that is a common mistake. Thousands to-day are
waiting for the propitious hour, the fitting place, the
convenient season.
'I cannot serve God in this home,' says one. If
their parents and friends had been religious, if their
training had been otherwise, it would have been other-
wise with them, but they feel that it would not be
possible to give themselves to God until they are able
to get away from their father's house and their own
people, and that time is not yet. Now, believe it,
God can bless and keep you there. There was 'some
good thing in the house of Jeroboam,' the most
unlikely house in Israel. Abijah was there, a God-
fearing and a God-favoured youth. Some little while
ago I noticed in a field quite a vast growth of fungi—
yellow, purple, black, spotted, no end of toad-stools
and devil's snuff-boxes, and right in the middle of the
ghastly, pestilent, poisonous growth there was a single
mushroom, white and fragrant, a veritable pearl of
the field. So Abijah stood in the house of Jeroboam
-a pure spirit circled about with a belt of corrup
THE PRESRNT BLESSING.
175
men, lascivious women, idolatrous worship, base and
bloody deeds. God's grace was sufficient for the
lovely youth until such times as God took him from
the evil to come. So, dear brethren, shall it be with
you if you will resolutely yield yourself to God. Your
father may be an Ahab, your mother a Jezebel, your
brothers and sisters utterly profane, every influence of
your home life pernicious, but God can magnify His
grace in you and keep you spotless and without offence.
Nay, more, it may be that God, having blessed you,
through you shall bless your father's house. Go
home to thy friends,' said Jesus to the healed
demoniac, 'and tell them how great things the
Lord hath done for thee, and how He has had com-
passion on thee.’ Believe in the power of God to
bless you, in the purpose of God to make you a
blessing, and that home of yours, so worldly, so
infidel, so wicked, may, through your instrumentality,
become a church full of faith, and purity, and joyful-
ness, and worship.
'I cannot serve God in this neighbourhood,' says
another. Ours is a bad neighbourhood, say they,
and nobody can live in it and be what they ought
to be. Well, some one will say, by all means get out
of it. But men cannot always do that at a moment's
notice. Brethren, if you feel that your neighbourhood
is unfavourable to good, pure living, and you can't
get out of it, be sure that God can keep and bless
you even where Satan's throne is. We have never
176
THE PRESENT BLESSING.
so much to gain religiously by change of locality as
we are sometimes tempted to think. You may go and
live in another street; you may remove to another
town; you may emigrate to another country; but
you will find that substantially you have pretty much
the same difficulties to contend with. The serious
difficulties are never outside, they are within; and
the difficulties within conquered, we may glorify God
in Sodom and Gomorrah, if our lot should be cast
there. Have you never thought how wonderfully
God preserved the primitive Christians in such cities
as Rome and Ephesus and Corinth, full of atheism,
idolatry, sensuality, as they were? The unbelief,
the worldliness, the immorality of the times was
overflowing; it is, perhaps, impossible for us to
imagine the power and pressure of Pagan wickedness.
And yet God kept His servants. Poisoned as the air
was, they breathed it and kept their souls' health;
lilies in a wilderness of thorns and briers, they were
not choked; in a very Slough of Despond, a cesspool
of filth, they walked with robes unspotted as the
drifted snow. The grace that kept them can keep
you. Don't wait for a favourable time or place; seek
God with all your heart where you stand, and it shall
be said of you as it was of the patriarch, God blessed
him there,' and there made him a blessing.
(
'I cannot serve God in this calling,' says another.
They feel their business is unfriendly to religious life,
that their business relations are so.
The tailor says,
THE PRESENT BLESSING.
177
We are a loose set; the shoemaker feels as if all
his comrades were infidels; the horse-dealer wants
to know how he is going to keep a conscience; the
collier, the soldier, the sailor, feel how difficult it is
with their vocation to serve God: Brethren, difficult
it may be, but God at this very hour is magnifying
His grace, and enabling His servants to live holily
and happily in callings of terrible difficulty. The
soldier on tented field is as pure as cloistered saint
the sailor in some godless barque is as much a
righteous man as Noah in the ark was; the miner
in the pit amid coarseness and brutality and excess
keeps himself without spot or wrinkle or any such
thing. Do not spend your life sighing for another
and more helpful calling; God can bless you where
you are, He can give you grace to resist the special
temptations of your lot, in slippery places He can
make you to stand, in dark places He can make you
to shine.
'I cannot serve God in this situation,' says another.
The domestic servant feels this sometimes. She lives
where there is not a thought of religion, and it seems
incredible that she could keep her soul alive there.
So young women feel in places of business that they
can no more keep the soul in spiritual health in the
godless Babylons in which they serve than they can
keep the bloom on their cheeks. So young men in
situations in our great cities are tempted to think
a decided consecrated life is an impossibility. I can
*
11.
12
178
THE PRESENT BLESSING.
imagine that I hear of these saying, 'It is impossible
to keep religion in a shop like ours, there is an entire
absence of religion in the place; nothing is heard but
snatches of comic, indecent songs; betting, gambling,
drinking, racing, ballet-girls, are all the go. You
might as well expect to keep your health amid fever
swamps as to live a high-toned life in an establishment
like ours.' I say to such, it can be done; God at
this very hour is strengthening thousands of young
men and women to live brave, pure lives in most
forbidding circumstances, and they bring the lustre,
the bloom, the fragrance of the skies into places
where you would never expect to meet with anything
heavenly or Divine. Be of good courage, God shall
bless you there; you shall tread on the lion and
adder, the young lion and dragon you shall trample
under feet.
Seek God's blessing now. That was a strange place
where Jacob wrestled with the angel, on the wild
heath beneath the stars; but he was resolute for the
blessing, and he got it. Are you earnest for the
blessing as he was? Is there in you the same yearn-
ing, resolute heart? We do not know precisely what
took place that night, but we may safely guess. How
Jacob grieved over the past; how he bemoaned his
personal weakness and sin; how he aspired to a
holier, manlier, diviner life! Is this so with you
to-day? If it is, then it shall be written of you,
in Manchester, at the Noon-day Service in the Central
THE PRESENT BLESSING.
179
Hall, 'Behold he prayed, and God blessed him there.'
And then expect the fulness of the blessing of a holy
life just where you are. An ideal future in which
to serve God is a great snare, so is an ideal place.
You have little to gain, morally or religiously, by
changing circumstances, or country, or church. 'Let
every man abide in the same calling wherein he was
called.' Follow the teachings of God's Providence,
and be sure wherever He fixes the bounds of your
habitation there you may truly serve Him and your
own generation according to His will.
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